IOHK, the independent, for-profit organization that oversees the technical aspect of the Cardano blockchain, has revealed that the next protocol upgrade named Alonzo will be deployed in four months’ time. 

Major Step towards Smart Contract deployment 

This information was revealed on April 11 via a tweet with a blog post, further explaining the Alonzo upgrade capabilities. According to the report, Alonzo would enable smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) for decentralized finance protocols (DeFi).

Smart contracts are considered a crucial element for the Cardano ecosystem, and the blockchain platform is building what many believe is a superior smart contract network to Ethereum. The Alonzo upgrade is expected to introduce a versatile platform for creating smart contracts on Cardano. 

IOHK also revealed that Alonzo upgrade would explore different areas, including the deployment of escrow-based decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEX) alongside the creation of complex apps that support centralized stablecoins. 

Alonzo will also extend the basic multi-signature scripting language used in Cardano previous Shelley upgrade. This Multisig will be upgraded to include Plutus Core language for more complex and secure scripting options. 

Alonzo deployment to occur in phases 

The deployment of Alonzo upgrade will occur in phases due to its complex nature. The first phase began in March, with developers merging the Alonzo upgrade with the Cardano node and Ledger code.

This would be followed by the second phase beginning in mid-April to early May, where the IOHK team would be working on Plutus development to launch a private testnet. During this period, NFTs will be created and deployed on the testnet, and improvements will be made to ensure all works well. 

The IOHK team will begin work on Plutus pioneers in May, and this phase will be focused on deploying ledger, node, and wallet backends on the Cardano blockchain. This will culminate in the next phase in June geared towards quality assurance, after which the codes will be frozen for four weeks before its launch. 

Cardano Price 

Cardano has enjoyed a nice bullish run in recent weeks, and at the time of writing, ADA is valued at $1.24. The impending launch of Alonzo bodes well for Cardano as it continues its quest towards developing a scalable smart contracts platform.