Cardano (ADA) blockchain underwent one of the most important upgrades earlier this week thanks to the Alonzo hard fork. The upgrade introduces important functions of smart contracts into the Cardano blockchain.
2,300 Smart Contracts Prepares for Launch
So far, more than 200 smart contracts have been listed in the Cardano blockchain explorer. However, these 200 smart contracts are currently locked in time and cannot be used by developers until they are published. In addition, according to the Vercel application, more than 2,300 smart contracts are preparing for launch.
On Friday, September 17th, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) was “competitive”. At the time of the announcement, the founder expressed his confidence in the release of smart contracts.
Cardano Constructed for The Second Wave of DeFi
In the rapidly evolving Defi area, the regulators were keen to initiate reviews. The chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, said that Defi projects are not subject to regulatory exemptions. In addition, AEC also examined Uniswap, one of the largest DeFi platforms.
Hoskinson believes the DeFi “second wave” winner will have adequate liquidity and interoperability. Plus, they have the ability to move multiple chains and make the cost predictable. Hoskinson added:
“We need governance, we need certification, we need insurance, we need regulation on these things, metadata identity… at the same time, you need to decentralize. The next wave of [DeFi] will do that with a straight face and will be significantly harder to regulate in a traditional sense. The way we constructed Cardano was for that second wave.”
Cardano indicated that it will be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This should also attract DeFi developers who want to save on transaction costs. Cardano didn’t appear in the first DeFi wave. Therefore, she is placing her hopes on the second wave.
Cardano founder Hoskinson provides all the necessary developments to meet the next DeFi revolution. However, Hoskinson has taken a strong stance on the current rapid growth in the NFT market. Hoskinson said on Forkast’s podcast:
“There’s also money laundering considerations that are occurring. So there’s a lot of evidence the Treasury Department’s been tracking where people are basically using NFTs as a mechanism to legitimize unlawful funds. So just create an NFT, you buy it from yourself, you say it came from someone else.”
“Oh, look, this picture of a stone sold for $5 million and I just made it out of nowhere. I have no idea who the counterparty is.”
“Actually, it was you. This kind of stuff happens. So all that’s getting sorted and the way we constructed Cardano is we have a lot of stuff. The same things that make RealFi work really well are going to be really great for NFT curation creation.”