Cardano, is a good example. Let’s look into the recent price action.
The competitor for Ethereum, which is on the verge of introducing smart contracts, has seen its native coin, ADA, surge in price over 16% in 24 hours to plateau at above $1.71.
Cardano Founder and CEO of IOHK, Charles Hoskinson said today he expects to reveal the date on which smart contracts will be released on the Cardano mainnet.
“We’ll be able to announce when the Alonzo hard fork is going to happen, and at that point you’ll be able to run smart contracts on Cardano”
According to Hoskinson, the hard fork would occur before the Cardano Summit, which is scheduled for next month.
Cardano has been gradually adding functions since it went live in 2017. Much like it’s competitor Ethereum, it allows for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are blockchain-based tokens that signify a deed of ownership to a digital asset.
The Alonzo hard fork will be one of the most consequential upgrades for the proof-of-stake (PoS) network, as it will enable decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that allow people to lend, borrow, and trade without any intermediaries. Instead of loan officers and underwriters, like in traditional banking, DeFi relies on smart contracts, which are programs that execute, if certain conditions are met. This makes DeFi a serious competitor to traditional banks, as the operational costs are tiny compared to banks.
ADA took the first place in price increase amongst the top 10 crypto assets in a daily chart. Bitcoin and Ethereum were rather stagnant, Binance Coin and Ripple (XRP) both added about 7%, according to CoinMarketCap data.
