The Alonzo White upgrade on the Cardano (ADA) network has been successfully implemented. The smart contracts on the testnet are now available to a wider community than the one who could test these features with Alonzo Blue.
From blue to purple, through white
The hard fork Alonzo Blue has given way to Alonzo White on July 15, 2021. This change of color will allow 500 validators, staking pool operators and developers to test the smart contract features. These features were already available on Alonzo Blue, but only a few people could access them.
Cardano has not finished giving its users a hard time. Indeed, Alonzo White will turn purple in 2 to 4 weeks with the hard fork Alonzo Purple, which will lead to the final testnet.
And if these different updates are necessary from a technical point of view, some members of the ADA community are getting impatient. Unvervalued Cryptos twitto called out Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson in his July 4, 2021 tweet regarding the promises he made on July 26, 2020:
“Next year I predict there will be hundreds of assets running on Cardano, thousands of dApps, tons of interesting projects and lots of unique uses and utility. In 2021, it will be very fun to watch Cardano grow and evolve. The community is definitely ready to innovate.”
Undervalued Cryptos also didn’t go easy on Cardano with some harsh criticism:
“No assets on $ADA, forget the 1000 dApps, not a single dapp on $ADA, only 1-2 announced projects working on $ADA. @IOHK_Charles What happened to your predictions? What’s the prediction for the next year now?”
Hoskinson later dismissed these criticisms arguing that “there are thousands of assets on Cardano,” with many dApps launched.
In fact, he pointed out a few days later, in a YouTube video released on July 8, that the project is progressing according to the roadmap, that the network has recorded more than $10 million in NFT sales and has welcomed “tens of thousands of assets.”
A non-zero sum game between Ethereum and its killers
Other members of the community manage to take their lumps, like Reddit member SL-Gremory, who gave an encouraging speech about the gradual deployment of smart contracts on the network:
“Don’t get me wrong! I totally understand people’s frustration with Cardano’s slow pace for smart contracts, but there is no doubt in my mind that they will get there and the product will be fantastic.”
He also touched on the relative advantages of competition between Ethereum and its rivals, pointing out that each can carve out their own niche within the cryptosphere:
“The biggest problem is that a lot of people don’t realize that there isn’t necessarily just one winner. ADA can win. ALGO can win. ETH 2.0 can win. DOT can win. Everyone can succeed in their own space. That fosters competition and that’s healthy.”
Cardano is moving forward despite the obstacles. ADA is already playing in the big leagues, joining the Grayscale Digital Large Cap fund. The eventual deployment of smart contracts on the mainnet will further increase Cardano’s clout in the cryptosphere, especially in decentralized finance.
