Cardano’s Ambitious Upgrade: A Deep Dive into the Hard Fork

• Cardano founder refutes claims of a stagnant ecosystem.
• Major protocol upgrade to enhance scalability and governance coming soon.
• Hard fork implementation requires stake pool operator participation.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson dismissed concerns about the blockchain’s health amid stagnant token prices, emphasizing a major protocol upgrade on the horizon. In an interview with Thinking Crypto’s Tony Edward, Hoskinson highlighted Cardano’s vibrant community and the upcoming enhancements, which promise to bolster the network’s scalability and governance capabilities.

Hoskinson updated Edward on Cardano’s progress, stating that the team is working concurrently on two roadmap components, Basho (scalability) and Voltaire (governance). He explained that Voltaire is necessary for certain aspects of Basho and focuses on establishing a representative on-chain governance system.

The Cardano community spent two years discussing Voltaire’s implementation before settling on Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) 1694. The team then held over 25 workshops globally, engaging in extensive dialogue for a year and a half to finalize the governance tool’s design.

Hoskinson stated that the final implementation stage is underway, with node 9.0 expected to be the fork-ready candidate next week. He emphasized Cardano’s community-driven approach, involving stakeholders throughout the process. The Hard Fork requires 70% of stake pool operators to install the new node before activation.

Hoskinson confirmed the imminent hard fork and also stressed on its role in introducing the new governance system and enhancements to Plutus V3, which will enable BLS support. For those new to the Cardano ecosystem, BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) support within Cardano refers to the integration of BLS cryptography into the Cardano blockchain’s Plutus smart contract platform.