The Cardano (ADA-USD) network has been quietly chugging along during a tumultuous time for the crypto market. Developers have been building out the network, looking to overtake peers and thrive even during a period of immense volatility. The journey isn’t without its setbacks, though. As we are seeing this week, developers are having to slow down a bit, delaying one of the biggest upgrades of the year for an entire month.
Charles Hoskinson might have begun his blockchain career with Ethereum (ETH-USD), but Cardano is more closely associated with the entrepreneur. After leaving Ethereum briefly before its launch, Hoskinson and his team, Input Output, began working on a competitor network.
The Cardano network focuses on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which offers much higher scaling solutions than Ethereum. It also takes a much more research-centric framework, with each upgrade to the system coming only after intensive scholarly research. In this sense, Cardano is far ahead of most other networks. This is particularly evident now as Ethereum rushes to pivot toward a proof-of-stake protocol itself in a bid to compete.
In the last year, Cardano has begun to ramp up production. After a lengthy five-year journey, it finally implemented smart contracts in the fall of last year. Now, developers can build dapps on the platform, opening it up to the DeFi market, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and more. In the half-year it has been fully live, the network has already secured more than $100 million in assets on-chain.
Input Output continues to push for new upgrades, be it new products or performance boosts. One of the most anticipated of this year is the Vasil hard fork. While initially promised to release next week, though, it seems that investors will have to wait a bit longer.
Cardano Hard Fork Rescheduled for Late July, ADA Facing Price Slashes
Cardano and its ADA crypto are taking a bit of a hit this week. After weathering the volatility of recent weeks with relative grace, the coin’s price is down by about 7% today alone. The price drop comes after an unfortunate announcement regarding the Vasil upgrade.
Vasil is the newest planned change to the Cardano network. The hard fork upgrade serves to vastly increase the performance of a network already leading the market. The three main proposals covered in the hard fork are specifically designed to serve developers, providing them with several new ways to code dapps and smart contracts faster and more conveniently.
Developers call the upgrade one of the most complex additions to the network thus far, and plenty of excitement built up ahead of June 29, the intended release date. Unfortunately, though, users will have to wait another month for the rollout.
An announcement from Input Output yesterday told Cardano users the Vasil fork is being delayed until late July. The reason given is that developers want to ensure there are no bugs or performance degradations resulting from the fork. Of course, it’s great news to hear the team is making sure everything is correct the first time. But, it’s still disappointing to wait longer.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
