Cardano is still waiting for the introduction of smart contracts. The Alonzo hard fork is needed and long overdue. While the market is struggling and Bitcoin is trying to hold on to the 30.000 USD-Dollar resistance, the team developing Cardano is busy achieving the next big update. In today’s article, we will take a closer look at Alonzo, why it is important and when it might be released.

The Alonzo hard fork

The name of the hard fork is a reference to the mathematician Alonzo Church who was a forefather of today’s computer science. Once the hard fork has commenced, Cardano will have smart contract capabilities. And this will awaken a whole new ecosystem full of DApps and DeFi protocols.

Alonzo's roadmap is colourful, to say the least. There are different phases, starting with Alonzo blue, followed by the current phase of Alonzo white. After white comes Alonzo purple, the sub-stages red and black and finally the hard fork on the main net.

It is estimated that Alonzo will go live between August and September 2021, and it remains to be seen if the developers meet the goal to deliver the upgrade within the preset timeframe of 90 days. Alonzo is part of the third stage of Cardano's development called Goguen.

Cardano is aiming for the throne

It took Cardano quite some time to develop its own capabilities, but the team around Charles Hoskinson aims for something big. While Ethereum is still working on its proof of stake transition, Cardano aims to overthrow Ethereum in many ways.

Part of that plan is the ERC-20 converter that will allow transferring already existing tokens from Ethereum on the Cardano blockchain. With ERC-20 being the most widely adopted token standard, this might change the way users and the industry will think about Cardano in the foreseeable future.

Is Ethereum done?

In short: No. Ethereum needs proof of stake and has smart contracts. Cardano has proof of stake to offer but lacks smart contract capabilities. Ethereum also has a pole position and a proven ecosystem. According to Charles Hoskinson, Cardano is trying to build all that, but even better.

Whether you believe in Hoskinson's mission or not, Ethereum and its success story won’t dissolve just because there is a promising competitor. And speaking of competition, there are also other projects with a similar scope.

Update: the Alonzo upgrade will be launched at September 12th

Buy Cardano