Hey Humans,
After 6 years of work, 2 programming languages, loads of peer-reviewed scientific papers and wars of tribalism - it is finally here.
We have seen the announcement of the announcement, and now we are ready to leave the Gougen Era. This will bring an end to the "it's not even functional" talk, and many possibilities in DeFi and Smart Contracts. The announcement was made today on the Mid August Update by Nigel Hemsley (Head of Delivery at Cardano).
The Alonzo Hard Fork Event will take place on September 12th!
Alonzo Hard Fork Event
The Hard Fork is coming to Mainnet on Monday, September 12. This means Smart Contracts will be live from this point on. I will update the article once the date is out, tonight.
The Hard Fork is the official starting point for Cardano's Gougen Era, named after the US computer scientist Joseph Gougen, and opens Cardano up for wide interoperability across different blockchains (look at ADAmatic for example), and hundreds of dApps, that have been funded in Project Catalyst, will start running on the network. It is the biggest update to Cardano so far, making the introduction of decentralized finance (DeFi) to the network — protocols that allow people to lend, borrow, and trade without any intermediaries, through Smart Contracts.
What do you think will be the date? My guess is National Lobster Day: September 25th.
Previous Eras:
Byron (Foundation)
Shelley (Decentralization)
Road to Alonzo
This year has been good for Cardano so far. The network is now fully decentralized as Cardano Foundation, Emurgo and IOHK have stopped participating as validator notes. It has the highest USD volume staked ot of all cryptocurrencies, in over 2800 active stake pools. Even the University of Wyoming has got one now. Maybe it has to do with the 500k USD Donation they've received from IOHK.
Further Cardano formed a partnership with the Ethiopian government to provide a digital Identity Solution, research on Cardano-powered algorithmic stablecoins has successfully been done, and thousands of NFT have been changing owners since the launch of the Mary Hard Fork. The list could go on and on...
What's after Alonzo?
This doesn't mean the development will stop after this. There are two more huge milestones that Cardano is approaching: Genesis & Peer 2 Peer.
The Basho Era will be all about scaling: Layer 2 protocols that run on top of the Cardano Blockchain; followed by the Voltaire Era, which is focused on the governance side. Voltaire will introduce a voting and treasury system, which will put all future development decisions fully in the hands of their community. It's all about global fairness and security!
Cardano Summit 2021
The official Cardano Summit will take place on 25th & 26th of September. With the news of the Alonzo Hard Fork being implemented before that date, there will definitely be something to talk about. It's a mix of virtual and live events around the whole world and the registration is open already: https://summit.cardano.org/
It looks like the physical lobby for this event will be University of Wyoming. I love seeing this connection coming back up. 🙌
About Cardano
Cardano is an open source Proof-of-Stake blockchain with ADA as its native Token. It was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, and their Mainnet went live in fall of 2017.
Cardano is of course not a 1-man project, but actually consists out of 3 corporate entities, and probably the biggest community of coders in the space. On top of everything lays the swiss Cardano Foundation, which oversees the development of Cardano and commissions two companies to do the development work. You could describe their job as to standardize, protect and promote the project.
The first of those commissioned companies is Emurgo. They are a worldwide initiative designed to support developers, startups and enterprises in developing blockchain solutions. The second one in the bunch is Input Output HongKong, or short: IOHK, with Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood as CEO. IOHK is a research and development firm engaged in using the peer-to-peer innovations of blockchain, with the aim to make convenient and inclusive financial services possible.
As it is a Proof-of-Stake chain, ADA can be used for Staking, and to pay for transaction fees. Staking Rewards are about 4.5% a year with no lock up and a minimum stake of only 1 ADA, which makes it easily accessible for everyone.
You can probably see that Cardano is one of my favorite projects. so I hope you like the content. Leave me a like or a comment here, so I know you want to hear more about it. I will update the article later on today, as soon as the final date for the implementation is out!
You can support me by using one of my referral links below. You have my word that I only advertise projects I believe in.
Cake DeFi (30$ in $DFI after you deposit $50)
Binance (10% off trading fees)
Coinbase (10$ in Bitcoin after you buy or sell 100$ worth of crypto)
Publish0x (earn $iFARM and $AMPL for reading articles)
Presearch (Google-Alternative that pays you for searching the web. Get 25 $PRE for signing up.)
Ledger hardware wallet (I can't offer you a benefit on this one, but this is definately the safest way to store your coins & token)
