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Cardano has completed another phase of its multi-stage Alonzo upgrade that will allow the network to offer smart contracts. On July 14, Input Output HK(IOHK), the company behind Cardano, announced that it has deployed the project’s latest testnet, dubbed Alonzo White, and onboarded new participants who will help the project move closer to smart contracts. Following the announcement, the network’s native token ADA climbed up to an intraday high of $1.29, before it declined by 3.4% to trade around $1.22.
Cardano is on Track to Introducing Smart Contracts on the Network
Before the White upgrade, Alonzo Blue supported some smart contract features that were only available to a few validated insiders. However, the network has now opened these features to 500 validators for testing.
HARD FORK SUCCESSFUL: Delighted to report around 19.44 UTC today we successfully forked the #Alonzo testnet to the new #AlonzoWhite node. The new network is happily making blocks already. 1/5
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) July 14, 2021
The Alonzo White testnet will run for two to four weeks, after which the network will upgrade to the final testnet, known as Alonzo Purple, which is scheduled for September.
Cardano Assures Investors on Smart Contracts Timeline
The news of Cardano’s latest upgrade comes amid growing criticism of the network over the slow implementation of smart contracts. Many detractors have pointed that Cardano is nowhere close to sporting the much-anticipated ability anytime soon.
Just days back, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson came under fire on social media when critics of the network questioned his predictions made in 2020. Hoskinson had claimed that the network would have thousands of applications by July 2021. But some estimates reveal that the network is home to only a few apps and a majority of its listed assets are mostly inactive.
It’s also unclear when Cardano would actually support smart contracts but for now, critics are betting against the network. Around 68% of the participants in a Polymarket survey predicted that Cardano would fail to deliver smart contracts in a usable form by October 2021.
For his part, Hoskinson has tried to address the concerns surrounding smart contracts in a recent YouTube video. And despite the slow roll-out of smart contracts, the network has been making progress in other areas, like the introduction of native assets with the Mary update and ADA’s inclusion in Grayscale’s multi-asset offering for institutions.