Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), a blockchain research and innovation firm, has now established a deadline for smart contracts to become operational on the Cardano blockchain. The Cardano (ADA) creator has said that the platform’s much-publicized Alonzo update would be available on September 12th.
Alonzo’s goal is to introduce smart contract capabilities to the blockchain through a “hard fork combinator (HFC) event” and to assist programmers who want to create decentralized financial (DeFi) apps on the network. To commemorate the news, Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson held a surprise ask-me-anything session.
“It has been a long journey to get this far. Years upon years, It’s been a lot of fun for me. It’s been a lot of work, and the past 90 days have been some of the longest of my life, but we made it only because of you, the Cardano group. Every single one of you battled tirelessly for us, beside us, each day you turned up, you trusted us, and you spoke many nice words when many others weren’t really.
We’ve been dubbed everything under the sun, including a ‘strange cult’ by a renowned investor, a ‘ghostchain,’ a’scamcoin,’ a’sh**coin,’ a ‘cannot deliver,’ a ‘academic venture,’ and a ‘simply a wallet.’ What do you think? Today, we demonstrated to the whole world that it does not affect us in the least. Dogs howl, but the caravan will always travel in one route. That north star is giving economic identity to billions of individuals who have never seen it.”
It’s happening.
We’re targeting 12 September 2021 for the ‘Alonzo’ upgrade, bringing smart contracts to Cardano via a hard fork combinator (HFC) event.
Find out more about the journey to a new era of smart contracts, DeFi and more for #Cardano $ADAhttps://t.co/59czSxrxFO
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) August 13, 2021
ADA is trading at $2.15 at time of writing and is up 45.30% in the past seven days, as per CoinGecko.