What You Need to Know About the Cardano Vasil Hard Fork
The CEO of Cardano network — Charles Hoskinson — announced during a YouTube live stream the date for the Vasil hard fork. The Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) also outlined the features of the hard fork in a Twitter thread. This raised the excitement of crypto enthusiasts since the upgrade was supposed to happen in June, then was later postponed to July and now September due to fixes.
It is not the first hard fork of the Cardano network, as it has previously undergone some, the most recent being Alonzo. Read on to learn more about the hard fork.
What Is the Cardano Vasil Hard Fork?
The Cardano Vasil hard fork is a proposed hard fork of the Cardano blockchain. It is intended to improve the scalability of the blockchain by enhancing throughput capacities and network capacity.
Additionally, there is an emphasis on improving smart contract functionalities to make it easier for developers to create decentralized applications (dApps). Smart contracts became a thing on the Cardano network after the Alonzo hard fork a year ago, creating a better alternative to Ethereum for developers to seamlessly run their applications.
When Did Cardano Vasil Hard Fork Occur?
The first stage of the long-waited hard fork took place on September 22, 2022, after several delays. The hard fork was named after Vasil St. Dabov, a mathematician and prominent member of the Cardano community who passed away in 2021. So it is no surprise the release date happened to fall on the independence day of his home country — Bulgaria.
The rest of the hard fork took place on September 27, 2022. The second phase focused on the cost model of Plutus — Cardano’s smart contract language.
What Are the Improvements Vasil Added to the Network?
The Vasil hard fork introduced three main Cardano Improvements Protocols (CIPs).
CIP-31: Reference Inputs
Prior to the upgrade, viewing an application’s state required a spending input. This resulted in blockchain congestion and inconvenient state and data inspections. With reference inputs, dApps can access transactional output data without having to spend each time.
CIP-32: Inline Datums
It introduced on-chain data storage to the network. This allows network users to read data stored in the output easily.
CIP-33: Reference Scripts
A transaction that uses a script might not fit into a block before the Vasil hard fork. By making changes to the system’s native programming script, reference scripts make transactions lighter.
They eliminate the requirement for the whole script and enable the validation of common scripts without a spending transaction. To put it simply, transactions contain less data making them cheaper and faster.
What Is a Blockchain Hard Fork?
A blockchain hard fork is a software upgrade that creates a permanent split in the blockchain. A hard fork can improve a blockchain’s functionality or reverse past transactions (known as a rollback). When a blockchain undergoes a hard fork, the software protocol is upgraded, and new rules are implemented. All users must upgrade to the latest software to continue using the blockchain.
Hard forks have occurred on numerous blockchains. One excellent example was the emergence of Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) as two separate blockchains. One of the main goals of the upgrade was to improve scalability, increasing the block size limit from 1MB to 8MB. This reduced congestion on the network and made it more efficient. In addition, the upgrade will enable better support for smart contracts and make it easier to develop decentralized applications.
Conclusion
Upgrades are a good thing for networks or software. For example, Apple constantly upgrades its operating system to address previous issues from the old versions and add new features for improved functionality. So, it is no surprise that Cardano is undergoing an upgrade.
The hard fork is a step forward for the Cardano network but does not mean a price surge. Though many holders think the upgrade will increase the price of ADA, it did not increase after the upgrade but remained at ~ $0.4.
