Cardano Developers Say Mithril Protocol Is Nearing Mainnet Launch

Inside Outside Hong Kong (IOHK), the company that created the seventh-largest cryptocurrency Cardano (ADA), has announced that the Cardano blockchain will soon be merged with a protocol upgrade known as Mithril.

Mithril is designed to improve the security and decentralization of the Cardano ecosystem. Cardano will now use a multi-signature login system, which enables users who are supporting the proof-of-stake infrastructure to leverage their staked tokens in a more efficient way.

Boosting decentralization for Cardano: Running a full node

A primary effect of the Mithril upgrade is that more users can seamlessly bootstrap their own Cardano node. Previously, there were two options for running a Cardano node that each had its own limitations:

Firstly, users could download a full version of the decentralized ledger — verifying all previous transactions that have been made on the Cardano blockchain in the process. This download is 100GB in total, which can deter users from running a full node due to hardware requirements.

Alternatively, third-party APIs enable users to run a Cardano node without the need to download the entire blockchain. These ‘lightweight clients’ require trusting in a third party while staking ADA tokens to have a share in the consensus mechanism and earn rewards from validating transactions.

Mithril will enable more users to join the network by improving the process of setting up and running a full node independently from third-party APIs. It will provide a snapshot of the current state of the blockchain, which negates the need to download a full version of the blockchain’s transaction history and makes the process of running an independent Cardano node more accessible.

Boosting efficiency for Cardano: Mithril’s improvements to proof-of-stake consensus

As a proof-of-stake blockchain, Cardano randomly selects a single node to verify each block of transactions. Staked ADA tokens act as an incentive to act honestly, as staked tokens can be lost in the event that a node is malicious or faulty. Cardano pioneered proof-of-stake as a more efficient solution to the Byzantine General’s problem when compared to proof-of-work.

A core function of Mithril is that it brings even greater efficiency to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism for the Cardano blockchain. Mithril uses a weighted algorithm to determine each node’s role in the verification process, which helps the blockchain to become more secure due to the financial disincentive being greater for the largest stakers.

ADA price prediction

The price of Cardano (ADA) at the time of writing is $0.312. It has risen 42% since June, and the CoinCodex price prediction algorithm forecasts that ADA will climb a further 6.38% over the coming 30-day period.