coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- The Alonzo upgrade is now live on the Cardano mainnet
- Alonzo enables smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain
- The initial smart contracts functionality is limited, but developers will have more options in the coming months
Alonzo upgrade goes live on Cardano mainnet
The Cardano mainnet now supports smart contracts, after the Alonzo upgrade successfully going live through at around 21:50 UTC yesterday. The result of the upgrade is that users can now write Plutus scripts and have them executed on the Cardano blockchain.
However, this does not mean that Cardano’s smart contracts capabilities now rival the likes of Ethereum, Solana and other established smart contracts platforms. As noted by Tim Harrison, the marketing and communications head for lead Cardano development firm IOHK, it’s still “very early days” for smart contracts and decentralized finance apps on Cardano. Harrison also said that users shouldn’t set their expectations too high for the immediate impact of Alonzo:
“There are high expectations resting on this upgrade. Some unreasonably so. Cardano watchers may be expecting a sophisticated ecosystem of consumer-ready DApps available immediately after the upgrade. Expectations need to be managed here.”
However, some smart contracts are already live on Cardano. For example, Twitter user Kevin Hammond demonstrated how he minted multiple non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with smart contracts on Cardano.
Just minted three NFTs using a Plutus script token factory on #Cardano
— Kevin Hammond (@khstandrews) September 12, 2021
We have programmatic minting of NFTs! @IOHK_Charles @IOHKMedia https://t.co/TFe1bVfgzY
The Cardano project has taken a methodical approach to introducing new features to their blockchain. Staking was enabled on the platform last July, while the ability to issue custom tokens on the Cardano blockchain was introduced in March this year. Smart contracts represented the next major functionality that was missing from Cardano, and developers will have the ability to create more sophisticated smart contracts in the coming months.
Cardano’s slow pace of shipping new features has made the project somewhat controversial in the cryptocurrency community. For example, a prediction market on Polymarket was established where users could bet whether Cardano would deliver smart contracts by October 1. Skeptics were more prominent when the market first launched, but the market turned in favor of the optimists on August 9 and continued moving in that until it was resolved yesterday.
IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson, the most prominent public face of the Cardano project, also made a $50,000 bet on the same issue with the Polymarket team. Since the Polymarket team lost, they will have to donate the money to a charity of Hoskinson’s choice.
So since @PolymarketHQ lost, they have to donate $50,000 to the charity of my choice. I thought about it and found a small one with a really good heart https://t.co/dIgeqCrEuK
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 13, 2021
Regardless of the Alonzo upgrade, Cardano’s native asset ADA dipped in the last 24 hours alongside the vast majority of other coints on the market. After dropping by 6.8% on the day, ADA is now changing hands at $2.41 and boasts a market capitalization of $75.7 billion.