The Alonzo upgrade for Cardano gets the network considerably closer to its maximum potential. Unlike Ethereum or Bitcoin, Cardano cryptocurrency is one of the crypto assets among investors, despite not receiving as much attention as them. In recent months, it became the world’s third most valuable cryptocurrency, thanks to an imminent update known as the Alonzo Hard Fork. It has been one of the most talked-about and anticipated events.
The Cardano network has been significantly improved by the Alonzo hard fork, which includes the much-anticipated smart contract capability. Smart contracts are digital contracts that are recorded on a blockchain and are automatically executed when certain terms and circumstances are met. Anyone will be able to design and deploy their own smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain with the Alonzo update.
The wait is over because the greatest launch for the Cardono users is now live on Mainnet.
What is Alonzo Hard Fork ?
The Alonzo Hardfork is a key update in the Cardano network, divided into three different stages: Alonzo Blue, Alonzo White, and Alonzo Purple. Each of these stages will help in bringing smart contracts to the network.
Eras in Cardono:
The prices are skyrocketing because of the new updates.
There are 5 eras named Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, Voltaire. During the Shelley era, Cardono upgraded to proof of stake in 2020 and quickly became the most widely utilised POS network. This update represents the end of the Shelly era of Cardano and the beginning of the Goguen phase.
These are the 5 eras below:
- Byron:
This Sets up Cardano’s base code. It allows users to exchange the ADA money, which is named after Ada Lovelace, a revolutionary programmer, and mine ADA using their proof-of-stake consensus process.
- Shelley:
The goal of this project is to decentralise the network by providing incentives for users to operate their own nodes. The primary purpose of this era is to ensure that nodes, or individual computers, are managed by a broad variety of network members rather than a limited, centralised body.
- Goguen:
This allows developers to build decentralized applications on top of Cardano by introducing smart contract capabilities to the network.
- Basho:
Improves the Cardano network’s fundamental performance, allowing it to handle more transactions and scale up. Side chains, a method of growing a network utilising numerous blockchains, are also introduced in this age.
- Voltaire:
For self-sustaining governance, adds a vote and treasury mechanism. Users will be able to stake their funds in order to influence the network’s future development.
Stages in Alonzo Hard Fork:
The Alonzo hard fork is divided into three phases, each of which is color-coded.
- Alonzo Blue:
Smart contracts were introduced by Alonzo Blue with roughly 50 technical participants, the Smart contracts were introduced by Alonzo Blue with roughly 50 technical participants, the majority of which were stake pool operators (SPOs). During this phase, invalidation faults and other small fixes were discovered and modified. As Alonzo goes through testing, these common bugs are expected to arise and be resolved.
- Alonzo White:
Alonzo White expanded on Alonzo Blue by adding more features and participants. Hundreds of new users went through an “exercise boot camp” to test the network’s capabilities. IOG, the main development company behind Cardano and helmed by former Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, conducted this experiment. This phase lasted for two to four weeks.
- Alonzo Purple:
With thousands of users joining the network, Alonzo Purple became the fully open testnet. This stage has two parts: “light purple” and “dark purple.” The first allows for simple smart contracts, while the second allows for more complicated smart contracts.
The final Alonzo Red/Alonzo Black colour phases are designated for bug fixes and cleanup in preparation for the hard fork’s final release.
Any additional changes to the hard fork will be extremely difficult to implement past this stage, therefore these two phases must be carefully examined.
The Plutus:
The name Goguen Era came after prominent computer scientist Joseph Goguen. Due to Alonzo’s new smart contract capabilities, it will be possible to construct dapps on the Cardano network for the first time.
During this phase, The Plutus Platform, a smart contract construction platform, will be deployed, allowing both technical and non-technical users to create dapps.
Plutus is written in Cardano’s original programming language, Haskell. For off-chain and on-chain development, Plutus and Haskell use the same code base. This means that the core coding is the same, eliminating any programming language barriers to smart contract creation.
Plutus contracts will be much simplified as a result. Therefore, developers will be able to test their apps for even higher-intensity requirements, such as hosting large institutions or governments.
Plutus core:
Then there’s Plutus Core, a programming language that connects smart contracts to the Cardano blockchain’s ultimate settlement layer.
When a developer is finished with Plutus, the code is built into Plutus Core, which simplifies the code for the Cardano blockchain. This strategy enables Cardano to better manage data while using less disc space on the blockchain itself.
What’s New?
The latest Alonzo version adds a flexible foundation for creating smart contracts. Collectibles, crowdsourcing, and auctions, for example, will all be possible.
- Deployment of decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges based on escrow (DEX).
- Complex applications for centralised stablecoins are being developed.
- Track-and-trace applications for product provenance in supply chains.
- Users will be able to issue utility tokens with vesting periods thanks to token-locking, which allows a group of tokens to be locked or frozen for a set length of time before being released.
The Impact After the Hard Fork:
The biggest impact would be that users can create DeFi applications, mint Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and play blockchain games on the platform.
Although new blockchains emerge all the time, Ethereum now holds the lion’s share of the market. Ethereum users are facing a significant disadvantage in the form of congestion, which causes sluggish transactions and high gas prices.
Cardano’s new Alonzo hard fork can help prevent this tragedy. In contrast to Ethereum’s existing Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus, it also implements a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus.
Takeaway:
One can picture the potential projects that could be constructed with easier smart contract manufacturing and greater development on Cardano. The cheap transaction costs on Cardano will assist projects that require higher transaction speeds. More than 65 projects, including Synthesis, Miniswap, Stasis, and CardWallet, have already committed to release alongside Alonzo.
More projects will arise as dapp development becomes easier.
