ADA – the cryptocurrency fueling the Cardano blockchain – now has over $30B worth staked on the network. That’s over 70% of the token’s circulating supply while making Cardano the most capitalized blockchain by staked value, with Ethereum in a distant second at about $12B.
Anticipating Smart Contracts
The $31.4B figure is gleaned from PoolTool’s recent data, an app that regularly tracks and streamlines interaction between stakeholders and SPO’s.
The milestone is reached amidst growing excitement over the most recent network update, Marlowe, which will introduce smart contracts to Cardano. On June 11th, IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong) announced that the Alonzo testnet launched weeks prior, now has the ability to run smart contracts.
“The ‘Alonzo’ hard fork will bring exciting and highly-anticipated new capabilities to Cardano through the integration of Plutus scripts onto the blockchain. – explains IOHK.
These will allow for the implementation of smart contracts in Cardano, enabling the deployment of a wide range of new DeFi applications for the first time.”
CryptoPotato sat down with IOHK’s Chief Technology Officer – Romain Pellerin – last month to discuss Cardano further. He acknowledges that this most recent development puts Cardano “on par with Ethereum in terms of functionality.”
Cardano Versus Ethereum
Ethereum and Cardano face frequent comparison, as they are both public blockchain platforms, and are the second and fifth largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, respectively.
However, Pellerin finds the comparison with Ethereum to be unfair, as Cardano uses a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, while Ethereum’s is currently running on proof of work.
“I’m not sure why Cardano is compared to Ethereum. Ethereum is a proof-of-work blockchain. We run a different ledger model.“
Even compared to other proof-of-stake coins, ADA runs the advantage of not necessitating stakeholders to lock away their coins for a specified period of time before earning stake awards, which may explain the relatively high stake rate.
The CTO also confirmed that the Alonzo testnet is being fine-tuned and that they’ve already had “great feedback.” IOHK expects smart contracts to be live on the Cardano mainnet in the late summer of 2021.
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