Cardano Will Support Smart Contracts After Hard Fork, Gets Listing in Japan

• The fifth-largest cryptocurrency, Cardano, will be getting Smart Contract functionality with its upcoming hard fork
• IOHK has announced that the testnet is already onboarding users, with the mainnet to follow after its completion
• As Cardano prepares for the Alonzo upgrade, the Japanese Authorities have given exchanges in the country the green light to list ADA
• Reacting to the news, Cardano has hit a 30 day high, on the back of an 8.50% price rise last week, and 3.3% over the last 24 hours

Billed as the third-generation cryptocurrency given its potential use cases, Cardano will be getting support for smart contracts soon.

The support of smart contract functionality on the Cardano network is thanks to Alonzo, a pivotal update phase for Cardano. It is one of the most anticipated events in the crypto world.

The support of smart contracts on the Cardano Network was revealed by the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson. In a live stream update, Hoskinson explained that;

“There are kind of two parallel tracks going on at the same time for the launch of Alonzo, track number one is the hard fork combinator event ….. the other track is about building the infrastructure around that node that allows you to run both off-chain and on-chain code and build full dApps.”

According to Hoskinson, most of the development infrastructure will be built between August and September. He further stated that users will be able to run smart contracts after the hard fork. Hoskinson explained that the update will offer a “better environment for Cardano apps to be developed and deployed.”

According to the IOHK (the driving force behind Cardano), the upgrade has begun onboarding users for the testnet. The hard fork leading to the launch of the Alonzo MainNet will happen after the onboarding is completed.

Investors in Japan can finally expect to trade the fifth-largest cryptocurrency after it got the green light from the regulatory agency to be listed on exchanges.

Japan has some of the strictest rules for cryptos and getting the listing ahead of its smart contract support is a big boost for Cardano.

According to Sebastien Guillemot, the CTO of dcSpark, “Japan has extremely strict rules for crypto exchange listings. Only a small number of tokens can be listed in Japan, and ADA is now on that list.”

The news has been confirmed by exchanges in Japan who have already begun preparations to list ADA. EMURGO has announced that the Japanese crypto exchange, Bitpoint, will soon support the trading of ADA.

• Regardless of its all round growth, sceptics have remained critical about the project
• Sceptics like Michael Novogratz of Galaxy Digital LP’s and Nic Carter, founding partner  of Castle Island Management LLC, have questioned the value of Cardano
• Amidst growth, Michael Novogratz has described Cardano as a weird cult

The series of events have served as a boost for Cardano in the market. The price of ADA ended last week up 8.50%. Over the last 24 hours, ADA is up by 3.3% and now trades at $1.48.

The boost saw ADA hit a 30 day high of $1.50 before briefly retracting. Cardano now holds a market cap of $47.4 billion, which makes it the fifth-largest cryptocurrency.