Brouhaha, buzz over Cardano amid hard fork test launch
Updated
A brouhaha and buzz have erupted over Cardano’s highly anticipated Vasil hard fork.
Input Output Group (IOG), the company behind Cardano, announced 3 July that Vasil launched successfully on a test network, or testnet. That means the hard fork – a blockchain network upgrade – will go live on Cardano’s mainnet, main network, in a month.
Hence, the brouhaha and buzz.
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Critics slam smart contracts
If Vasil’s goals are achieved, Cardano could produce more demand for its coin (ADA), potentially boosting the cryptocurrency’s value. But this week,
a critic with the Twitter handle Thorchain.bull charged that the new Cardano will be largely incompatible with the old version when the hard fork goes live.
“Most Cardano smart contracts [are] incompatible with the new update Vasil and will have to be re-written,” Thorchain.bull wrote on Twitter.
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Denial, rebuke from CEO
That claim earned a denial – and rebuke – from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, who is also IOG’s CEO.
“The entire reason we built the [hard fork combinator and Plutus versioning is to ensure this [incompatibility] doesn’t happen,” Hoskinson wrote on Twitter.
Plutus versioning refers to Cardano’s smart-contract platform and programming language.
“It’s incredible to see the FUD [fear uncertainty and doubt] and stupidity from Twitter trolls, but that’s life,” added Hoskinson. After the [hard-fork combinator] event, all contracts will still function.”
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Buzz before the brouhaha
Before the brouhaha came the buzz.
IOG let people know of the Vasil test launch in advance, renewing excitement that had cooled down after the company postponed the hard fork on the main network in late June.
“Finally!” wrote one Twitter user.
“Who’s super excited??” added a Twitter user with the handle Baby Cardanian, who describes herself as an ADA lover.
In a tweet, IOG called the test hard fork “an important next step in the journey towards the Vasil upgrade on mainnet.”
Two previous Cardano hard forks in 2021, known as Alonzo and Mary caused ADA’s price to skyrocket 200% and 1,000%, respectively, according to Altcoin Trader.
Li Gong, Youbi Capital managing partner (Photo courtesy of Li Gong)Two leaders not keen
But two crypto industry leaders are not keen on Cardano.
“Superior engineering would make [Vasil] a soft fork,” Chia Network president Gene Hoffman told Capital.com.
Under a soft fork only one network will remain valid after an update, according to Investopedia.com.
“[Cardano’s hard fork] is an attempt to continue to try to come, I think, in many ways, towards Chia,” added Hoffman. “Bram [Cohen, Chia’s CEO and founder] built a better UXTO model with better smart contracts and they are trying to catchup.”
UXTO refers to the amount of digital currency remaining after a cryptocurrency transaction is executed, according to Investopedia.com. Unspent outputs are saved for a new transaction.
Youbi does not touch Cardano
Li Gong, a managing partner with crypto venture capitalist Youbi Capital, said her company does not touch Cardano.
“The thing is, we don’t see a lot of progress in the technical side,” Li, who scouts investments and acquisitions for Youbi, told Capital.com. “That’s from my personal point of view. It’s really kind of a last generation of public blockchain with very limited [transactions per second]. I don’t think there [are] a lot of development activities right now on this layer one [base blockchain].
“It’s more about, like, a pure community. … So that’s definitely not our priority to explore.”
According to IOG, more than 1,000 projects, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are being developed on Cardano.
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