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Cardano ahead of Ethereum? - When it was launched, the Cardano blockchain was presented as an Ethereum killer. This has just taken a new step, by deploying the Shelley hardfork and by setting up staking before Ethereum. However, other fundamental features are still missing.
Deploying Shelley on the mainnet
That's it ! After 2 long years of development, the Shelley hardfork has been deployed on the mainnet of the Cardano network .
Started in 2018, the project went through different phases, including the deployment of a testnet last April. This had been a great success with more than 12 billion ADA tokens put in staking . Indeed, unlike the usual testnets, the managed funds were indeed real.
With Shelley, the Cardano network introduces Proof of Stake , marking the start of network decentralization. Thus, ADA holders can now seal their coins in order to participate in the transaction validation process and be rewarded with the newly created ADA tokens on each block.
Staking for everyone
The staking mechanism unveiled by Cardano has certain specificities. Indeed, in addition to offering classic staking (where users block part of their funds to validate transactions) Shelley introduces the concept of skate pool .
Thus, a sufficiently competent operator can set up a staking service and accept coins from other users. This delegation system allows non-competent ADA holders to take part in the validation process, for a management fee defined by the operator.
At the time of launch, the network already had 444 stake pools . This number could even cross the threshold of 1000 pools which will enable the values ??observed on the testnet to be reached. The annual yield of ADA staking is currently estimated at 4.63% annually .
There is still a long way to go for Cardano
As we've seen, Cardano has often been touted as an Ethereum Killer . The launch of Proof of Stake a few months before Ethereum's could well validate this theory. However…
Staking is one thing. However, most of the functionality inherent in Ethereum is still missing . This is particularly the case with smart contracts .
For the moment, these are not operational on Cardano. We would have to wait for the Goguen update, which should arrive in the coming months.
“It's a monumental achievement, but it doesn't mean we will stay idle. We look forward to the completion of the Voltaire and Goguen phases of the Cardano roadmap, which will see the implementation this year of strong governance arrangements and smart contract functionalities. » , Declaration of Aparna Jue, Product Manager at IOHK.
Hopefully, for the Cardano teams, these updates will indeed see the light of day in 2020, unlike the Ethereum teams known for their incessant delays. Either way, Cardano will still have a long way to go before it has an ecosystem as developed as Ethereum's.
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