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Cardano

Cardano enjoys all-time high network activity

Cardano enjoys all-time high network activity

Thriving as a top-tier blockchain ecosystem, Cardano is fast approaching the maximum limit of its processing capacity as the network activity increases on the decentralized channel. While sustaining a constant value of more than 90% blockchain overload for eight days in a stretch, the Cardano blockchain has emerged as a strong player in the market. The surge in network activity can be attributed to the increase in block size implemented by the Cardano cluster in November 2021 to enhance the operability standards for the customers.

In Layman’s words ‘blockchain load’ refers to the volume of memory space filled within the average Cardano block through user involvement. Where a full 100% blockchain load shows that the blocks have attained their maximum level, a 0% load indicates no activity on the channel. As per the report from Cardano Blockchain Insights, the network activity on the portal skyrocketed on January 14, 2022, from a value of 55.2% to 91.8% on January 16, 2022. The spike has continued to fluctuate above 90% since January 19, 2022. The all-time high of 94.1% was recorded on January 21, 2022, on the channel. The company increased its block size by 12.5% two months ago to meet this burgeoning network traffic.

Where on one hand this hints towards the struggling state faced by Cardano in meeting the network requirements on the other hand it shows the rise in blockchain adoption rate. The load increased since September when the firm launched smart contracts for users. Despite this, Cardano’s native token ADA is trading 60% low at a value of $1.05 from the earlier $3 value. Throughout 2021, Cardano gained momentum as an eco-friendly smart contract platform. The current market cap of the project is more than $33B despite the ongoing crypto slump.

It is interesting to note that Cardano is expanding its block size to maintain the load whereas Bitcoin and Ethereum are taking other significant steps for the same purpose. The Bitcoin network is increasing scalability level through layers, predominantly the lightning network, for processing transactions off-chain and settling them in groups on the main chain. Ethereum is moving to similar layer solutions like roll-ups along with complex verification themes like sharding to expand scalability. The Bitcoin owners refused to accept block size increase in 2017 by rejecting the SegWit 2X upgrade. The solution was rejected to hamper decentralization. The Cardano platform has managed to sustain its position in the industry with constant upgrades in its system dedicated to making the ecosystem more user-friendly and effective.

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DAY LONG NEWS ROUNDUP: LATEST NEWS 03/11/21

We offer you the top headlines which are affecting the blockchain and crypto space on 03/11/21 so you can stay informed on the latest updates.

Cardano network reaches 2M wallets as it prepares to scale activities with Hydra upgrade

Cardano network reaches 2M wallets as it prepares to scale activities with Hydra upgrade

In a recent tweet posted on Monday, the Cardano Foundation has declared that the number of ADA wallets have now surpassed the 2 million mark and this is very exciting news for the company and its supporters. By May, 2021, the network had already reached a milestone of 1 million ADA wallets.

It is during that period that the Cardano network successfully conducted the popular Alonzo Hard Fork, which enabled the use of smart contracts on the platform. In the meantime, Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Cardano Foundation has shifted his focus to increase the adoption of blockchain technology in the continent of Africa. Last week, he had announced through a twitter post that 5 million students in the country of Ethiopia are on their way to receive digital IDs. These IDs will be linked to their academic records which are also based on the Cardano blockchain.

Their technological development is gathering pace after Alonzo, with Hydra, their layer two scaling solution. These operate on top of an established solution in order to improve performance of the network. However, in the context of Cardano, sharding involves channeling the number of transactions off the chain and shifting them towards staking pools, or the nodes of Hydra. Following this will not even partition the ledger itself. In theory this means, the Cardano network will be able to conduct a million transactions per second.

Robinhood and Burger King collaborate to serve crypto in the market

Robinhood and Burger King collaborate to serve crypto in the market

Back in 2017 the popular fast food brand Burger King had dipped their toes in the world of cryptocurrencies with the introduction of a certain “Whoppercoin” in Russia. Even though today the coin is technically not around, it can still be traded, although it has been mostly forgotten by people.

Now in 2021, the brand is back in the game and there is a lot of competition as well with meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu dominating the market. As per Burger King, in order to receive coins, consumers will have to open an account on the Robinhood crypto exchange platform, where they will be able to claim a single prize every day.

The company added that as a brand, their intention is to reward their most loyal customers in ways that are exciting, unique and most importantly, culturally relevant. They further added that they are aware of the dominating presence of cryptocurrencies in our society at present, but since it may not be easy for many people to understand. Hence they want to make their customers familiar with the idea of crypto in innovative and inventive ways, through their food.

NFTs on Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” are on their way with a twist

NFTs on Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” are on their way with a twist

Major names in the industry of traditional entertainment are dabbling in the world of Non Fungible Tokens or NFTs, which has taken the global art and collectible market by storm. This week, legendary film director Quentin Tarantino has joined the club as NFTs on his iconic debut film “Pulp Fiction” are announced to be released soon. 

The NFTs will be released on The Secret Network Blockchain and will consist of some of the footage of the film that has never been seen before. The only thing that separates these NFTs from the general NFTs that hit the market, is the fact that these NFTs cannot be accessed by the general public. This is because the nature of the Blockchain allows it to be so.

According to the latest announcement on the website of the Blockchain, these will be the first of its kind NFTs that will be launched on the Blockchain. There will be a total of seven NFTs which will include original handwritten scripts from the film along with on set audio commentary by none other than Tarantino himself. However, as the name suggests, the NFTs will be ‘secret’ so that only the owner can view them.

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Ethereum vs Solana vs Cardano — who is DeFi’s favourite?

Ethereum vs Solana vs Cardano — who is DeFi's favourite

The general consensus regarding the future of cryptocurrencies is that it lies in the expansion of decentralized applications or DApps as we call them. Even though the hype surrounding the cryptocurrencies are based on their volatility and market capitalizations, it is true that ultimately crypto is a newly emerging software and like any other piece of software, the real worth of cryptocurrencies are also determined by their utilitarian standards.

From that perspective, it can be understood how individuals view the competition amidst the host of cryptocurrencies that are available in the market. However, the competition is perhaps the toughest among the three cryptocurrencies namely, Ethereum, Solana and Cardano, who are battling it out to take over the smart contracts space.

At the very core of these cryptocurrencies, including the three aforementioned ones, lies the individual algorithm which drives them. Actually Ethereum, Cardano and Solana are the names of the Blockchain platforms upon which their cryptocurrencies operate. The Ethereum blockchain uses a crypto token named ETH while the Cardano and Solana chains utilize their respectives tokens by the name of ADA and SOL. 

What are Smart Contracts?

Smart Contracts are one of the most talked-about things in the blockchain and crypto community. So what are they? Well smart contracts are that which separates Bitcoin from the rest of the altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano or even the Binance coin. Their algorithms contain tiny little pieces of codes which automatically execute themselves when certain conditions are met. To put it simply, these are ‘if, when, then’ statements that are automatically executed at the right time. The parties who are involved in the conducting transactions can put as many of these statements in the form of conditions as they want. 

Ethereum: how it started?

Even though Bitcoin will always be remembered for introducing the blockchain technology and the concept of cryptocurrency in the world, it can be said that Ethereum has transcended Bitcoin by revolutionising finance in the world. It was created by a 27 year old Russian programmer named Vitalik Buterin, who named it after Ether, a scientific term from the 19th century. 

As soon as smart contracts were made available on Ethereum, it became a revelation in the world of crypto. As Bitcoin was considered to be an alternative to currencies, Ethereum became an alternative to that and everything beyond. Ethereum empowered the developers to utilize the technology of blockchain and build things that would revolutionize the future.

How does Cardano challenge the position of Ethereum in the crypto space?

Ethereum grew exponentially ever since it was launched in 2013, but however, there was a major shortcoming despite all the good things it had to offer, and it was due to the fact that Ethereum was running on Proof of Work system. 

Large organisations called miners authenticate crypto transactions through a series of computers. The miners can only provide enough power required to authenticate or validate the transactions. They do not have the capacity to change or modify the blockchain or the transactions carried out on it. By performing this work, the miners are rewarded with new crypto. This is what is generally meant by a proof of work system. 

The problem with this system is that, in the case of Ethereum and even Bitcoin, every miner who is involved in a transaction is rewarded and hence, in order to reward every time a transaction is carried out, a huge amount of computing power is required. Here, Cardano makes use of a system called the Proof of Stake (POS), which is a lot more efficient.

In the POS system, the miner is required to strake their own crypto to be eligible to receive rewards in the first place. The platform then automatically points out the top miners, which is always a predefined number of miners and allows them to validate the transactions. As a result the overall computing power and thereby the total amount of electricity required to power those computers comes down at a considerably faster rate. This is one of the most important reasons why it is environmentally much more sound than that of Ethereum or Bitcoin, and in reality the same goes for Solana as well. 

Solana and Cardano: the Ethereum killers

The main reason why Cardano and Solana are called Ethereum killers is because of the proof of stake system used by both of them. As of this moment, they are a lot more efficient than Ethereum or Bitcoin and they also provide the answer to the most compelling question from the experts, billionaires and world governments regarding crypto and that is concerned with the environmental footprint of these digital assets.

However, next year Ethereum is planning to upgrade to the Proof of Stake system as well and launch the version 2.0 which is believed to reduce their energy requirements by around 99 percent. 

Conclusion: Which one is expected to lead the race?

There are two major points that need to be mentioned at this point. Firstly, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana all are either upgrading or are already providing Proof of Stake system while offering smart contracts. The problem, with Ethereum, is however with scalability.

Every time a transaction is carried out on the Ethereum platform, one has to pay a gas fee or a transaction fee, irrespective of what the nature of that transaction might be. As of this moment, the gas fees can even go up to $150 and owing to the volume of transactions taking place on this platform, the gas charges are volatile. 

In comparison, the transaction charges required for Solana and Cardano platforms are quite less, as they cost a dollar or even less at the moment. The Solana platform has addressed this issue of scalability by introducing a cryptographic time-stamping system which can accommodate an astonishing 65000 transactions per second. 

On the other hand, the problem with Solana and Cardano is that of adoption. The market capitalizations for both of these crypto currencies are lower than even half of the market capitalization of Ethereum. As a result, the market is speculative for both of them. 

Undertaking courses on cryptocurrency trading, attending a cryptocurrency course or even gaining a Blockchain certification provides the necessary and fundamental knowledge for the assessment of the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. 

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Input-Output Global Has Confirmed The Launch Of Cardano Smart Contracts On Mainnet For September 12th

The famous Input-Output Global or the IOG has recently confirmed on its Twitter handle that the much-awaited launch of the smart contract platform of the Cardano Blockchain on mainnet, which goes by the name Plutus, is scheduled to launch this month, on the upcoming Sunday, i.e., September 12th, 2021.

As per the announcement on Twitter, an updated proposal has been submitted by the company precisely around 17:26 UTC. It is now an inevitable outcome that this updated proposal will now eventually trigger and lead to the third and the final Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event for the increasingly popular Cardano blockchain, and this one event will finally enable Cardano to implement capabilities concerning smart contracts on a full scale.

IOG has revealed that the Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator event will lead to being the most significant and notable of the updates that have taken place from Cardano, and this will eventually create the foundation for a new and exciting era of smart contracts in the future. In addition to this, the company also stated that Plutus would also be deploying the really interesting and unique technology of the HFC in order to integrate with the Cardano blockchain.

The company largely expressed their gratitude towards their partners and all the supporters who have been there with them since the beginning, as they are about to conclude the final phase of testing for Plutus. The company further added that as they announced that this might be the end of a long and beautiful journey, but this is also the inception of an incredibly exciting new phase of the company’s development as a network of smart contracts. They even mentioned that they would have a lot of information and news to share over the upcoming months as their entire ecosystem continues to expand and unfold.

In order to celebrate this immense achievement, the developer of Cardano will be hosting a Livestream on the coming Sunday where the team who has been working behind this platform will be sharing a lot more informative insights on the much-coveted Plutus and the tremendous potential it upholds, as the company gears up for the Summit.

Cardano dealing with rumors about its Smart Contracts

Over the course of the previous weekend, there have been a series of rumors that surfaced about the Plutus. Many users who are active on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter expressed their assumptions that it was not possible for Cardano to generate the necessary volume of transactions so as to be able to sustain their smart contracts initiative.

IOG was quick to provide a response to these rumors by highlighting the significance of their UTxO model of Blockchain, which basically stands for the Unspent Transactions Output blockchain model. In order to address the concerns surrounding the transactions, the company stated that it is the role of the developers to create the dApps with “more parallelism” and multiple UTxOs.

Charles Hoskinson, who is the founder of the Cardano network, also responded against the rumors surrounding Plutus, stating that a massive storm of FUD is on its way, which is similar to what happened with Shelley the previous year and that it is a commonplace affair. He added that this is what happens, and people have an intention of burning down and desecrating what they do not fully understand or cannot comprehend. 

According to him, September 12th is one memorable and big day on the journey they have started together.

Finishing thoughts: Are you interested in developing your own Blockchain-based applications and changing the world?

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To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

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Cardano Could Shape ‘Big Three’ of Mainstream Cryptocurrencies, Says Morningstar Analyst

Amy Arnott who is a portfolio strategist at Morningstar, a financial services provider dealing with Cryptocurrencies, has expressed her opinion on the future of the cryptocurrency named Cardano (ADA). She opined that there is a strong possibility that Cardano (ADA) could claim its position as one of the largest and biggest three cryptocurrencies in the world by market cap, along with Ethereum and Bitcoin, and even go mainstream at one point.

While speaking with Business Insider, Arnott mentioned that Cardano, the cryptocurrency that was created by Charles Hoskinson, who is also the co founder of the popular Ethereum, has a lot of potential as an altcoin and seems promising enough to form the ‘big three’ of cryptocurrencies which are mainstream, alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum. She said that Cardano shares some similarities with Ethereum in the context that it is mainly a protocol that has immense potential applications in terms of technology. Moreover, there is a lot of enthusiasm surrounding Cardano and a few other stable coins.

Arnott mentioned that institutional investors are more than willing to invest in cryptocurrencies because their belief in the asset value of cryptocurrencies reveal that they consider cryptocurrencies to be an actual asset class. She added that while this trend is in a continuous process, we will be witnessing several cryptocurrencies becoming increasingly mainstream. She further added that in future, she would like to see an index fund for cryptocurrencies that would be rendered into an Exchange-traded Fund or an ETF which will enable investors to acquire better exposure to the entire ecosystem as a whole.

Arnott mentioned that the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC has not yet approved any ETF on cryptocurrencies yet in the United States of America. As a result it becomes extremely cumbersome for mainstream investors to gain proper exposure to the world of cryptocurrencies. According to her, an ETF like that could actually help in lowering the volatility witnessed in the cryptocurrency space. Not only that, she believes it would attract many traditional investors with a considerably lower risk profile. 

She also states that the volatility may also be stemming from the fact that there is a general difficulty in determining an adequate price for these cryptocurrencies. Some people have even termed Ethereum as a ‘digital gas’ for its ability to power NFTs and Decentralized Finance applications. She believes that it does have some utility that should be able to determine a certain price floor.

The same thing should be viable for Cardano also, the moment it starts providing support for Smart Contracts on which new Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications can be built. As far as reports suggest, the ADA network is going to be available in the capacity of a browser along with being mobile friendly. A new upgrade is being done by a team of experts who are working on the project. This upgrade will enable the network to allow running the Plutus application backend in the world’s most widely-used programming language, which is Javascript. 

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) which is a company behind the Cardano blockchain, announced the launch of Alonzo Blue 2.0’s testnet only last month. Alonzo Blue is actually just a single part of a plethora of upgrades that will enable the Cardano blockchain to access the benefits of hosting smart contracts. This will, in turn, empower the developers to construct decentralized applications on the network. The Alonzo hard fork belongs to the Cardano network’s ‘Goguen’ era. The term Goguen era is inspired from the name of an American professor of computer science from the University of Oxford and the University of California. The Goguen era was preceded by the Shelly phase. This is when the Cardano Blockchain had evolved into a decentralized blockchain and those who were serving as members of the community, eventually became validators of the Cardano blockchain.

Alonzo has plans to unveil itself in the form of three distinct phases: blue, white and purple. The public will learn about each of them as they gradually unveil along with the successful completion of the integration process of the upgrades. This process will roughly take about 90 days to complete. The entire process is expected to reach completion by the end of August. The upgrade will include a converter which will allow ERC20 tokens from the Ethereum blockchain  so that they can smoothly operate on Cardano.

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