On 3 July 2022 at 2020 UTC, the team behind Cardano successfully launched the Vasil upgrade on Testnet. The dev team has referred to the Vasil update as the second most ambitious program undertaken on the protocol after integrating smart contracts. The update is to launch on the mainnet.
In early June, Charles Hoskinson, Cardano founder, announced that the Cardano would be undergoing a hard fork dubbed ‘Vasil’ by the end of the month.
Cardano integrated Smart contracts in 2021, making the update the second milestone on Cardano mainnet. Since the integration, the Cardano network has had tremendous growth. Developers have used Smart contracts for decentralized finance and applications and Non Fungible Tokens. The increasing activity on Cardano brought the need for a scaling solution to avoid the scenario faced by Ethereum. High Ethereum blockchain activity has slowed down speed and pushed transaction fees high. The update is set to mitigate challenges.
The update is Cardano’s scaling solution, preventing the protocol from clogging up. The Cardano network uses a proof of stake consensus algorithm. Validators verify each block before it’s added to the blockchain.
The Cardano upgrade will also enable the interoperability of Cardano sidechains in the current Basho phase. Basho is the fourth step of development by the team that focuses on scaling Cardano.
The Cardano upgrade will use Diffusion pipelining. It enables validators to work ahead instead of waiting for all validators to approve the block. The update will enable faster transactions with low gas fees.
Testnet testing before launch has been essential since it allowed developers to test for hidden bugs in the blockchain. The successful Testnet launch gives the Cardano team the green light to go ahead with the planned update.
Vasil upgrade impact
The Cardano community has requested four weeks to prepare for the update. The developers have advised Stake pool operators (SPOs), project developers, and exchanges to test their products on the testnet to ensure a smooth transition for the planned mainnet hard fork.
The recent update has had little impact on Cardano’s price, it is up 0.58% in the last 24 hours. You can check more at Cardano’s price prediction from 2022 to 2031.
