During the latest Cardano 360 event, IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson announced the imminent rollout of the Alonzo hard fork that will bring smart contracts to the ADA project. The protocol upgrade is slated to go live on testnet as early as next month.
IOHK core developers will deploy smart contracts on the fourth-largest blockchain for the first time when the upcoming hard fork goes live on testnet. The testing phase is scheduled to last about three months, after which a code freeze will take place in June, kicking off the clock on the mainnet launch.
Following the Alonzo launch on mainnet, developers are expected to roll out a slew of new applications on the project in August. One of the proposals that the IOHK team has already presented is an app that facilitates the swapping of tokens on Cardano. This app, written in the Plutus programming language, could potentially rival Ethereum-based DEXs such as Uniswap soon.
Steadily Moving Towards The Goguen Era
The Cardano blockchain project has made enormous strides in recent months as the team behind it endeavors to enter the era of smart contracts. The project has already implemented two hard forks that have moved it from the Shelley decentralization era toward Goguen.
The first upgrade, dubbed the Allegra hard fork, took place this past December, allowing for token locking on the blockchain.That protocol update was followed by the Mary hard fork that introduced native tokens and multi-asset support in March.
The Mary update brought exciting new use cases to the project, such as paving the way for dev teams seeking to fully migrate to or build user-defined custom tokens on Cardano.
Alonzo will provide the final piece of the puzzle needed to usher in Goguen, an era expected to bring numerous solutions and decentralized services to the blockchain platform. Goguen will also boost the migration of third-party developers to Cardano, thus creating self-sustaining demand for the blockchain’s native ADA token.
Flare (FLR) Votes on Cardano Integration
The Flare Network recently conducted a poll on Twitter asking the FLR community whether it should consider integration into Cardano’s ADA token as an F-asset. Many respondents have so far voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal, with about 85% supporting the integration.
The team behind the much-anticipated Flare blockchain has determined that the referendum on Twitter ends today. FLR enthusiasts have only a few hours left to express their views on the proposal.
