Cardano Roadmap post the Valentine Upgrade: What does the network’s future hold

• Cardano’s development has progressed through five eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire.
• The Valentine Upgrade was a recent addition to Cardano’s Goguen era that aimed to expand the platform’s capabilities by enabling the creation of dApps.

Over the years, the Cardano Roadmap has undergone significant transformations. The network was the first to be labeled the “Ethereum Killer,” and since then, its development has progressed tremendously. 

Read Cardano (ADA) Price Prediction 2023-24

The latest development in the Cardano Roadmap is the Valentine upgrade, which is a crucial milestone in the network’s journey. It brings new capabilities and advancements to the network, and it’s essential to understand where it falls in the roadmap’s era.

Understanding the Cardano Roadmap

The Cardano roadmap outlined the development of Cardano, which has been divided into five distinct eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. The first era, Byron, was named after Lord Byron and was a critical phase in the network’s development.

During this era, the foundational architecture of the network was established, including integrating the Daedalus wallet into the Cardano ecosystem. Additionally, the network welcomed the Yoroi light wallet, developed by IOHK’s sister company, Emurgo.

The Shelley era was a crucial milestone in the Cardano roadmap, as it established a higher degree of decentralization. With the mainnet launch, the Cardano ecosystem shifted from the federated Byron era toward a more community-run node system.

During this phase, the network introduced the Mary upgrade. It allowed users to create their tokens on top of the Cardano network, opening up new possibilities for decentralized applications.

The Goguen era was another significant milestone for Cardano. It brought smart contracts to the platform and allowed for the development of decentralized applications using the Plutus language. Additionally, the network implemented a multi-currency ledger to support the creation of new tokens natively.

To make smart contract creation more accessible to non-programmers, Cardano introduced Marlowe. It was a supplementary programming language that allowed for the easy creation and testing of smart contracts.

The current stage and future of the Cardano roadmap

The Basho era marked Cardano’s fourth stage of blockchain improvements, focused on maximizing scalability and interoperability. One of the key features of this phase was the implementation of sidechains that was compatible with the Cardano mainnet. These sidechains allow for the transfer of heavy loads from the public network. In addition, the Basho era would see the development of new account models. Although the main network would continue to use the UTXO model. 

The Voltaire era is the final stage in the Cardano roadmap and will introduce a shift in the network’s governance. It will allow users to submit improvement proposals that stakeholders in the community can vote on. This new voting mechanism will ensure that the future development of the network is in the hands of its participants.

It will give validators the ability to use their ADA holdings and voting rights to influence the direction of future development. Furthermore, the Voltaire era would introduce a treasury that would take a fraction of all transaction fees for future development.

Where does Valentine fall on the Cardano roadmap?

The Valentine upgrade was a recent addition to Cardano’s Goguen era, which aimed to expand the platform’s capabilities by enabling the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) that could run on the network.

Specifically, the Valentine upgrade helps developers create software that uses smart contracts and extends the compatibility of Cardano with other blockchains. By adding support for the SECP256k1 curve, the upgrade improved compatibility between Cardano and other leading blockchains.

The Valentine upgrade also introduced two additional signature types, the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Schnorr, which can be used by people and firms creating dApps on Cardano to verify data. These improvements will enable developers to build more sophisticated and secure applications on the Cardano network.

It’s worth noting that, as of May 2023, Cardano was currently in the Basho era, which was focused on improving the platform’s scalability and interoperability. The implementation of sharding and the integration of sidechains are key priorities for the network in this phase.

The Cardano TVL and dev activity

The Cardano network has seen a significant uptick in Dapps and liquidity flow since the activation of smart contract capability and the development of Dapps in the Goguen era of the Cardano roadmap.

According to DefiLlama data, the Total Value Locked (TVL) of the Cardano network as of this writing was approximately $154.12 million. While an uptrend could be noticed on the chart, the TVL was significantly lower than Ethereum, which had over $28 billion locked in its network.

However, the Cardano network had been leading the charge in terms of development activity over the past 30 days, according to data from Santiment. Only Polkadot and Kusama were ahead of Cardano in terms of commitment. This indicated that despite lagging in TVL, Cardano was making strides in its development efforts.

Source: Santiment

ADA on a daily timeframe 

Although ADA’s price appeared to be underwhelming recently, the coin experienced significant growth throughout the year. Based on a daily timeframe chart analysis, ADA’s value has increased by over 60% since the beginning of the year.

As of this writing, the coin was trading at approximately $0.3 with only a slight gain of less than 1%. The recent dip in value had caused the coin to drop below the neutral line on the Relative Strength Index.

Source: TradingView

How much are 1,10,100 ADAs worth today?

The Cardano Roadmap has undergone significant transformations, from establishing the foundational architecture during the Byron era to introduce smart contracts during the Goguen era. The Valentine upgrade was a crucial milestone in the Goguen era, expanding the platform’s capabilities for creating decentralized applications and improving compatibility with other blockchains.

While Cardano’s TVL may lag behind Ethereum, the network was making strides in its development efforts. As Cardano continues its journey through the Basho era, we can expect further improvements.