Cardano Achieves Milestone: 146 Projects Launched, 76.1 Million Transactions Processed, and More

In the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, staying up-to-date with the latest developments is crucial. This week, the Cardano ecosystem made significant strides in its development journey, as reported by Essential Cardano in their latest weekly update on October 6th.

The Cardano ledger team celebrated a series of achievements, including the full implementation of the constitutional committee. This marks a critical step in Cardano’s governance structure, ensuring that the platform operates smoothly and transparently.

Addressing governance actions related to treasury withdrawals was another key focus, with the team successfully ensuring that these actions now function as expected. Compliance with transaction rules was enforced, providing enhanced security and reliability. Moreover, a mechanism was introduced to delay the expiration of delegate representative (DRep) positions when no proposals are available for voting.

This week’s #Cardano development update is live on #EssentialCardano!

Read the report to learn about the latest on core technology, wallets and services, smart contracts, scaling, governance, #ProjectCatalyst, and #Cardano education. https://t.co/M1m8OAaRBo

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) October 6, 2023

One significant improvement includes changes in how CostModels are updated with protocol parameters, allowing for individual Plutus language version updates without necessitating a complete replacement of all CostModels. Additionally, various performance and testing enhancements were implemented, ensuring a more robust Cardano ecosystem.

Consensus Team Tackles Mempool Forging Regression

The consensus team addressed an important issue related to mempool forging regression in the UTXO-HD branch. They confirmed that this problem was successfully fixed by the latest patch. Despite the increased resource requirements, key metrics such as forging, peer-propagation, and end-to-end propagation showed no regression when utilizing the UTXO-HD version of the Cardano node with the in-memory backend.

Genesis Development and Transition

In the realm of Genesis development, researchers continued their in-depth review of various design aspects, with particular attention to the Genesis rule’s selection concerning the Cardano historical chain. This aspect is crucial in ensuring the stability and integrity of Cardano’s blockchain.

The consensus team also merged a fix for the Babbage to Conway transition and released a new version of consensus, ensuring that the transition process remains smooth and secure.

Wallets and Services: Lace Team Progresses

The Lace team made significant strides towards the upcoming Lace v.1.6 release. They ran tests against the new Cardano services, including portfolio persistence. The team resolved bugs related to portfolio and stake management, implemented basic Trezor support, and initiated an internal security audit to bolster the platform’s security.

Smart Contracts: Plutus and Marlowe Advancements

The Plutus tools team continued their work on exposing the queries of the new Marconi API via a JSON-RPC server. They conducted tests using the new cardano-node-emulator within the Marconi environment for integration purposes. Additionally, they implemented a strategy to enhance synchronization times by deferring the creation of SQL indices in Marconi.

The Plutus Core team released version 1.14.0.0, introducing two static binaries tailored for x86-64 Linux: pir and uplc. These binaries offer various functionalities, and their publication marks a significant step in the development process.

The Marlowe team contributed by creating Docker images, re-benchmarking Runtime resources, and making important updates to support open roles. Marlowe Runtime version 0.0.5 was released, showcasing ongoing development efforts.

BASHO (Scaling): Focus on Hydra

The Hydra team primarily focused on developing a reliable new network layer. They also released Hydra version 0.13.0, addressing security vulnerabilities and ensuring the platform’s stability.

The Mithril team updated a proposal for implementing Mithril in a light wallet and worked on enhancing the explorer UI. Additionally, they created tools for benchmarking aggregator performance and added important functionalities to the Mithril networks.

Voltaire: Governance and Community Participation

Cardano’s governance and community ownership took center stage with the introduction of the GovTool, designed for ada holders to register on SanchoNet and become delegate representatives (DReps). Community builders and Intersect will play a pivotal role in hosting and maintaining these tools, subject to community approval.

Catalyst: Onboarding and Technical Progress

Project Catalyst began onboarding projects successfully selected in Fund10. This process includes various steps to ensure the seamless integration of these projects into the Cardano ecosystem. Technical improvements and developments are ongoing, promising a vibrant future for Project Catalyst.

Education: Haskell Course and Learning Assets

The Education team continued delivering and supporting the Haskell course with ABC. Collaboration with the Marlowe team to define learning assets further solidified Cardano’s educational initiatives.

In conclusion, Cardano’s weekly development report reflects substantial progress across various teams and aspects of the ecosystem. These achievements pave the way for a more robust, secure, and user-friendly Cardano blockchain, strengthening its position in the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.