A Deep Dive into the Cardano’s Upcoming Hard Fork

• Charles Hoskinson discusses Cardano’s upcoming protocol update for scalability and governance.
• Cardano Improvement Proposal 1694 leads to final implementation phase for governance structure.
• Cardano’s hard fork to introduce new governance framework and Plutus V3 improvements.

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano , downplayed worries regarding the blockchain’s condition in light of unchanging token values, pointing to an important upcoming protocol update. During a discussion with Tony Edward of Thinking Crypto, Hoskinson pointed out the active community surrounding Cardano and the forthcoming improvements that are expected to enhance the network’s scalability and governance features.

Hoskinson briefed Edward on the advancements of Cardano, noting that the development team is simultaneously advancing two key roadmap elements: Basho, which focuses on scalability, and Voltaire, which addresses governance. He pointed out that the implementation of Voltaire is critical for certain features of Basho, as it aims to create a decentralized on-chain governance structure.

The Cardano community engaged in a two-year-long discussion about implementing Voltaire, eventually agreeing on the Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) 1694. Following this, the team conducted more than 25 workshops around the world, dedicating a year and a half to in-depth conversations to refine the design of the governance mechanism.

Hoskinson announced that they are now in the final implementation phase, with node version 9.0 poised to be ready for the upcoming fork by next week. He highlighted the participatory nature of Cardano’s development, with the involvement of community stakeholders at every step. To proceed with the Hard Fork, 70% of stake pool operators must upgrade to the new node version.

Hoskinson also confirmed the approaching hard fork, underlining its significance in rolling out the new governance framework and improvements to Plutus V3, which will incorporate BLS support. For those unfamiliar with the Cardano platform, including BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham), cryptography signifies integrating BLS cryptographic techniques into Cardano’s Plutus smart contract framework.