On August 12, Cardano tweeted that the upgrade was completed in epoch 290, which for the first time enabled the creation and execution of smart contracts on the public blockchain.

Despite celebrating the milestone, Cardano noted that it was still “the early days of the project,” claiming that now “the real mission begins” in a blog post posted by Tag:

Cardano has announced the completion of the Alonzo hard fork, which introduces the long-awaited intelligent contract functionality.

“This is where the real mission begins when we – as a community – start to realize the vision we have all worked towards for so long. Build a decentralized system that expands the identity and economic opportunities for everyone and everywhere. “

The Alonzo fork enables the writing of smart contracts for Cardano using Plutus scripts, which the team describes as a “purpose-built smart contract development language and execution platform for the functional programming language Haskell.”

However, the team encouraged their community to have reasonable expectations of Alonzo, stating:

“The expectations for this upgrade are high—some such irrationalities. Cardano supporters may expect a complex ecosystem of consumer-ready DApps that will be available shortly after the upgrade. Expectations have to be managed here. “

Cardano is a public blockchain founded by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson and developed by his research firm IOHK.

Although Cardano has pledged to compete for Ethereum’s dominance in hosting decentralized financial (DeFi) and Web3 applications, the project has been criticized for not providing smart contract functionality so far.

Beat Cardano about the time it takes the protocol to launch smart contracts, Dominic Williams, founder of the rival platform Internet Computer, said, “I’m surprised this chain has been around for a while – 2 years and “just added support. for intelligent contracts, and everyone is happy with this progress. “

Cardano also struggled in early September after the first DApp launched on its test network encountered issues related to failed concurrent transaction processing.

The outspoken Ethereum maximalist Anthony Sassano tweeted: “Seriously six years of research,” peer-reviewed, “and a market cap of more than $ 90 billion later and the first Dapp on Cardano can’t even do concurrent transaction processing (aka concurrent transactions). is what you need for DeFi).”

The first Dapp went live on Cardano today, and ADA fans have finally discovered that you can’t work your way through the basics. pic.twitter.com/tYQXNcVKGN

– Anthony Wassano (@ sassal0x) September 4, 2021

Cardano has since tried to respond to the criticism, claiming that the DApp is protocol-based, “not limited to one transaction per block.”

Related: Altcoin Roundup: High Ethereum fees begin liquidity transition to Layer 1 platforms

Despite its drawbacks, the hype surrounding Candano’s recent upgrades has pushed its native token ADA to a record high, with ADA rising 192% from a local low of $ 1.06 in late July to $ 3.10 on September 3, according to CoinGecko. ADA has also increased by more than 1,600% since early 2021.

However, since then, ADA has fallen, spending the last week between $ 2.30 and $ 2.80, suggesting many speculators bought the rumor and sold the news.

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