(2021-08-23) Cardano Alonzo Hard Fork What You Need To Know

Cardano Alonzo Hard Fork: What You Need to Know. After the Alonzo update, anyone will be able to create and deploy their own smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain, paving the way for native decentralized applications (dapps).

The system update, which is expected to roll out fully sometime in the third quarter, signifies the end of the Shelley era of Cardano and the beginning of the Goguen phase

Cardano’s development road map is divided into six main stages, or “eras,” each focused on expanding the functionality of the network.

Byron

Shelley

Goguen

Basho

Voltaire

By offering rewards to those who run full nodes – network participants who download the entirety of the Cardano blockchain – Cardano incentivizes network participation and encourages the growth of the Cardano network.

Since its launch on July 29, 2020, Shelley has introduced two major hard forks: Allegra and Mary.

Cardano operates using its own “hard fork combinator” – a system that combines two different protocols (such as Byron and Shelley) onto a single ledger to ensure a smooth transition between phases

A smart contract building platform called The Plutus Platform is scheduled to be released during this phase and will allow both technical and non-technical users to build dapps.

Plutus uses the native Cardano programming language, Haskell. Plutus and Haskell use the same code base for off- and on-chain development.

Then there’s Plutus Core, which is the programming language that connects smart contracts to the Cardano final settlement layer: the Cardano blockchain. Once a developer is done creating their code with Plutus, it is compiled into Plutus Core where the code is simplified for the Cardano blockchain

For the less-technical enthusiasts, there’s Marlowe, a new domain-specific language (DSL) that allows any user to create and test their own smart contracts without needing any advanced programming capabilities. Marlowe is built on top of Haskell and Plutus but can be thought of as building blocks for creating smart contracts.