Hello, everyone! Over two weeks, there were a lot of events. First of all, The Cardano Foundation has earned a spot in the Crypto Valley Top 50 report for the third time. This report is released by the Zug-based investment company Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC) in collaboration with PwC’s Strategy and IT partner inacta. The latest report has included the Cardano Foundation as one of the six ‘unicorns’ (an entity valued at more than US$1bn) based in Switzerland and also listed the Foundation in the Top 50 blockchain organizations. Secondly, Cardano released a new Jormungandr build. This third testnet release has closed a number of issues, fixed some bugs and housekeeping issues. It also brought some enhancements, including some early code to start bringing in network capabilities. Finally, The Cardano Foundation and Konfidio, a Berlin-based blockchain venture studio, have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate blockchain models with corporations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and governments. This is the first such alliance for the Zug-headquartered Foundation, one of the world’s leading not-for-profit blockchain organizations, and is in line with the mission to create and unlock value by driving the adoption of the Cardano blockchain. The partnership’s main goal is to enable real-world business cases on the Cardano blockchain. The initial focus will be centered on use cases in banking, logistics, pharmaceutical industries, and trade finance, with government and public service use cases to follow. You can read more about this news and new updates in our post.
Development
Github metrics:
Developer activity (from Coinlib.io):
IOHK is releasing Cardano 1.6 on the Cardano mainnet. This release brings the latest Daedalus (v. 0.14.0), which offers a number of significant updates and improvements to the wallet experience, making it easier and more enjoyable to use. It also adds a number of useful improvements to the support functions for faster diagnostics and issue resolution.
What are the standout features?
The standout features improve the Daedalus UI and user experience, including the following:
- Loading screens now have an animated Daedalus logo, as well as status icons which indicate when core system components are working correctly
- Three new user interface themes have been added to increase user customization options
- An updated design gives all the modal windows a fresher, more unified look and feel
- Improvements to the update system help users having issues with older Daedalus versions to update to the latest version, and resolve their issues
- A new ‘Wallet UTXO distribution’ screen will also help users to understand how their funds are distributed
This release also includes a number of small but important improvements such as a new help menu, new items in the diagnostics window, automatic scrolling to show error messages that are not in view, automatic language selection for fresh installations, links to support articles to help diagnose issues, timestamps for paper wallet certificates, and more.
Watch this Daedalus 0.14 Demo video by Darko Mijić, Daedalus Product Manager.
For all the details on the new features, please check out the release note.
>> How to update your Daedalus?
As the version finishes propagating through the network, you should see a prompt in your Daedalus wallet that lets you know about 0.14.0. You’ll be able to update to the new version in this way.
However, if you don’t have Daedalus or are running an older version, you may not receive the prompt. In this case, you will actually see instructions on how to manually download and update your wallet through the official Daedalus website.
IOHK has just started publishing the development demos that they use internally to keep execs and colleagues updated on progress. These are raw, unexpurgated technical demos. But they give a great insight into what’s happening in the project and what you can expect next.
To get things started, you can check out the first in the series below. The demo is by Rupert Horlick and Duncan Coutts, and shows full Haskell nodes with the 4 components integrated — consensus, ledger, network protocol, and node shell.
>> Cardano Dev Progress Demo #1: Multi-node Communication
>> Cardano Dev Progress Demo #2: Multi-node Communication with On-disk Storage
Further videos will be released as and when they become available, based on project milestones.
Social encounters
IOHK has released an introductory ebook on Plutus, their general-purpose functional programming environment for Cardano, to help you learn about the language as well as to work through real code examples. It is available to download on Amazon Kindle and, for free on LeanPub. Find links to the ebook and IOHK’s blog post about this Plutus ebook with the link.
The Cardano Foundation has earned a spot in the Crypto Valley Top 50 report for the third time. This report is released by the Zug-based investment company Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC) in collaboration with PwC’s Strategy and IT partner inacta. The first report was released in 2018 and is published quarterly to list and study the largest and most important companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein involved in the blockchain space.
With more than 50% (over 400) of all registered companies and all six Unicorns, including the Cardano Foundation, Zug is the heart of Crypto Valley.
The latest report has included the Cardano Foundation as one of the six ‘unicorns’ (an entity valued at more than US$1bn) based in Switzerland and also listed the Foundation in the Top 50 blockchain organizations. Figures also indicate that optimism in Crypto Valley have returned following the so-called crypto winter of last year. These Top 50 companies listed by the CV VC report have doubled their valuations in the first half of 2019, and the ecosystem has grown in both the number of companies active in distributed ledger technology and in the number of professionals employed in this crypto-friendly nation.
Nathan Kaiser, Chairperson of the Cardano Foundation, says:
“This positive development indicates maturity and growth, and we are proud to be a part of it. What we need next is to continue collaborating and working together with others in the industry towards a favorable regulatory and business environment.”
In support and participation of fostering the adoption and beneficial regulation of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, the Cardano Foundation is an active member of:
- the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA), under the European Commission, that bring together developers and DLT projects with regulators and policy makers to bring blockchain technology to the next stage;
- Global Digital Finance (GDF)’, an industry membership body that promotes the adoption of best practices for crypto assets and digital finance technologies — through the development of conduct standards;
- the Algorithm Contract Types Unified Standards (ACTUS) project whose ultimate goal to create a standard framework for smart contracts in the finance industry;
- the Crypto Valley Association (CVA), an independent, government-supported association established to participate in the global efforts to foster blockchain and cryptographic technology innovation and adoption;
- the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV), under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).
Read the full CV VC Top 50 report here.
ABOUT CV VC: CV VC was founded by Lakeside Partners, an experienced startup investor and advisor with its own well-established ecosystem, including a co-working space, startup competitions, industry summits and strong ties to Swiss politicians and institutions. Find out more: https://cvvc.com/index.php
About the Cardano Foundation: The Cardano Foundation is an independent body based in Zug, Switzerland, with core responsibilities to help oversee and supervise the development of Cardano, the world’s first third-generation blockchain, and its ecosystem. The Foundation is committed to protecting and promoting Cardano, the first blockchain platform developed for smart contracts using a scientific philosophy, and to advocate on behalf of the users and community of the protocol. The Foundation works alongside Input Output HK (IOHK), who are contracted to design and build Cardano, and EMURGO, the for-profit arm working to boost the Cardano ecosystem through commercial ventures. The three entities are wholly separate in governance, ownership and leadership. Find out more: www.CardanoFoundation.org
Cardano released a new Jormungandr build, v0.3.2. This third testnet release has closed a number of issues, fixed some bugs and housekeeping issues. It also brought some enhancements including some early code to start bringing in network capabilities.
For the full details, visit the repo here.
Documentation and guides
They’ve recently filmed a series of bitesize explainer videos with Duncan Coutts, Chief Technical Architect at IOHK to help explain some of the key protocols and principles that support Cardano Shelley. They’ll be releasing more of these over the coming weeks to help support the program. From staking to delegation, monitoring to validation, Duncan will tackle the topics we all want to learn more about. The first video can be found here.
Community Content
Cardano Ambassador Tommy from ADAtainment creates great videos, covering key Cardano topics in a super accessible way. You can visit his channel and take a look at this video 6 on Shelley address types.
Releases
This past week, DevOps has created 0.3.2 jormungandr-nix, snappy packages, and updated the homebrew packages. They have also published the 0.3.2 chocolatey package. Please see Shelley Testnet Infrastructure for instructions on how to use these packages.
The Cardano Foundation and its ecosystem partners further strengthen their support to a number of educational initiatives worldwide. The Switzerland-based Foundation together with Input Output HK (IOHK) and EMURGO proudly support academic programs in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe that study blockchain technology.
The Cardano Foundation, one of the world’s leading not-for-profit blockchain organizations, will support various initiatives designed to drive the development of digital currency and blockchain technology.
Specifically, the Foundation’s support will help boost the research about the security and the vulnerabilities of the blockchain industry.
The efforts that the Cardano Foundation is supporting include projects undertaken by IOHK and EMURGO. In addition, another one of the Foundation’s donees is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT Digital Currency Initiative that studies the blockchain technology.
Cardano is a ground-breaking blockchain network and the first proof-of-stake platform developed for smart contracts using fundamental research from world-leading academics, most of which is subject to academic peer review, with papers presented at top-tier international conferences. IOHK Research has published 30 academic papers to date.
As the industry continues to professionalize and see engagement from more traditional business sectors, the demand for academic research on blockchain is expected to increase significantly. Greater academic rigor and research will blaze a trail for the blockchain industry’s mass adoption and help educational institutions to design blockchain-related academic disciplines.
As such, EMURGO Academy will train developers and create blockchain experts in India to meet the rising demand for blockchain developers and provide economic empowerment. The Bangalore-based Academy with branches set to expand to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune will train students and career professionals and offer blockchain-related curriculums to local universities and enterprises.
IOHK regularly conducts Haskell training and workshops around the world, with the latest courses taking place in Barbados, Ethiopia and Greece. In July, the company published an ebook on the smart contract language, Plutus, with further educational materials in the planning.
The MIT Digital Currency Initiative is an interdisciplinary initiative launched by the MIT Media Lab that is designed to drive the development of digital currency and blockchain technology.
SINGAPORE, AUGUST 20 2019 / EMURGO — Official Cardano partner and commercial arm EMURGO, announces today the formal signing of MOUs with Korea Blockchain Contents Association (KBCCA) & Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA) to mutually identify and explore potentially aligned synergies with integrating Cardano’s blockchain-based solutions into the Korean digital content & mobile gaming industries. These agreements support EMURGO’s mission to drive the adoption of a global Cardano and bring value to ADA holders.
KBCCA & KMGA are both approved by South Korea’s Ministry of Science & ICT to seek healthy, innovative growth of the local digital content and gaming industries through forging partnerships and resource sharing between stakeholders.
“EMURGO is pleased to collaborate with KBCCA & KMGA to foster the continued development of blockchain-based content & mobile gaming industries. With digital content & mobile gaming rising in popularity year after year, there is a huge untapped potential to implement blockchain-based solutions into these lucrative industries,” said EMURGO CEO Ken Kodama.
With a deeply ingrained digital gaming culture and advanced Internet infrastructure, South Korea is the fourth-largest mobile gaming market in the world. According to reports, South Korea also has the highest smartphone penetration rate in the world with 9 out of 10 South Koreans owning a smartphone and the largest mobile gaming user demographic adults aged 21–35, aligning with the average tech-savvy young adults interested in blockchain technology. [1] [2]
Reflecting the overall worldwide trend, South Korean consumers are also increasingly resorting to online content platforms for media consumption fueled by the high domestic smartphone penetration rate and wide offering of content-rich platforms. Korean adult consumers spend more than half of their time online on these digital content platforms. [3]
The combination of an extremely high rate of smartphone ownership along with a developed gaming culture and technological infrastructure in Korea, serves as a strong foundation to potentially implement Cardano’s third-generation blockchain-based solutions into leading game development and content creation enterprises. KBCCA & KMGA both enjoy hundreds of members consisting of these local enterprises.
About EMURGO
EMURGO is the official commercial and venture arm of the Cardano project, headquartered in Singapore, with a presence in Japan, the USA, India, and Indonesia. EMURGO works closely with IOHK and The Cardano Foundation to grow Cardano’s ecosystem globally, and promote its adoption. Learn more about the project at https://emurgo.io
For further information from EMURGO
Florian Bohnert
Chief Marketing Officer
+81 3–6712–7275
florian@emurgo.io
About Korea Blockchain Contents Association (KBCCA)
Korea Block Chain Contents Association provides integrated blockchain contents services through mobile and other various content projects with over 150 member companies. To learn more, visit http://k-bcca.or.kr/
About Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA)
Korea Mobile Game Association seeks the mutual growth of game developer companies and their employees through practical, on-site support with currently over 800 member companies. To learn more, visit http://www.k-mga.or.kr/
Upcoming events
Cardano Foundation, as one of its sponsors, is attending the WyoHackathon event next month. Hackathons are a great way for us to share Plutus and Marlowe to the wider community. Join the experts from IOHK in Wyoming!
Below are the new Cardano Meetup groups:
- Cardano Blockchain Taipei
- Cardano Turkey Meetup Group
- Cardano Blockchain Ottawa (Ottawa, ON)
- Cardano Blockchain Malta (Valletta, Malta)
- Cardano Blockchain Ostrava (Ostrava, Czech Republic)
See also:
Roadmap
What’s next?
- Shelley decentralization by 2020
>> Cardano will be more decentralized and enjoy greater security and robustness
>> Shelley will see the introduction of a delegation and incentives scheme, a reward system to drive stake pools and community adoption. As a proof-of-stake network, users stake their ada to participate in the network. Painstakingly designed using game theory and the latest research into proof-of-stake networks, the delegation and incentive scheme will allow and encourage users to delegate their stake to stake pools — always-on, community-run network nodes — and be rewarded for honest participation in the network.
>> Cardano is expected to be 50–100 times more decentralized than other large blockchain networks, with the incentives scheme designed to reach equilibrium around 1,000 stake pools. The entire Cardano network runs at a fraction of the power cost of equivalent proof-of-work blockchains, using the electricity equivalent of a single house, rather than a small country.
>> The Shelley era represents the natural maturation of the network, making it more useful, rewarding, and valuable for users new and old. Shelley will set the stage for a fully distributed network, and an entirely new application ecosystem with even greater things to come in the Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire eras.
Partnerships and team members
The Cardano Foundation and Konfidio, a Berlin-based blockchain venture studio, have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate blockchain models with corporations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and governments.
This is the first such alliance for the Zug-headquartered Foundation, one of the world’s leading not-for-profit blockchain organizations, and is in line with the mission to create and unlock value by driving the adoption of the Cardano blockchain.
The partnership’s main goal is to enable real-world business cases on the Cardano blockchain. The initial focus will be centered on use cases in banking, logistics, pharmaceutical industries and trade finance, with government and public service use cases to follow.
Nathan Kaiser, Chairperson of the Cardano Foundation, says:
“Our strategic partnership with Konfidio is yet another tangible step towards promoting and advocating Cardano and, more importantly, driving its real-life use cases. Konfidio’s homebase, Berlin, is a major global blockchain center and its worldwide relevance will help us put the spotlight on our one-of-its-kind platform. Our collaboration will also afford the Cardano Foundation an increased visibility in Germany and Europe.”
The model under the strategic partnership will be tested on startups, Mittelstand companies — SMEs that supply more than 60% of German employment, as well as large multinational corporations with global operations that are core to their strategy.
Dr. Mervyn G. Maistry, Founder and CEO of Konfidio, says:
“Konfidio’s strategy is based on global decentralized platforms unlocking value across the global economy. After having researched all the Turing-complete blockchains, we believe the third generation blockchain of Cardano is best-placed to ensure the stability and business continuity of real-life business models. We are working with both global corporates and the German Mittelstand and will use Cardano’s revolutionary dual-layer architecture in developing complex Turing-complete transaction platforms. This strategic partnership will help the development of real-world Cardano-based applications. We will also be able to provide young entrepreneurs with a combination of business model expertise and state-of-the-art third generation blockchain as an option for their future startups. Our aim is to increase the understanding of the protocol in both corporate and startup environments and accelerate value-add for both Cardano, the blockchain community and our clients.”
About Konfidio: Konfidio is a company builder and venture accelerator based in Berlin, Germany, with a focus on leveraging blockchain technology to build enterprise-scale decentralized applications and business models for both permissioned and permissionless distributed systems. The company was founded in 2016 by Dr. Mervyn G. Maistry and Galen B. Evans in the German capital and has more than 35 Konfidians from 20 different countries. Find out more: https://konfidio.com
The Cardano Foundation — in line with its worldwide expansion plans — has strengthened its global community growth efforts by appointing Alix Hyeowon Park as the new Community Lead — effective immediately.
In her new role based in Seoul, South Korea, Alix will focus on developing and implementing a new community management strategy to support and educate the global community. Among her immediate priorities will be strengthening the community with the next phase of the Cardano Ambassador program. Working in collaboration with strategic partners, IOHK and EMURGO, she will advise the Foundation Council on scaling the global Cardano community.
Nathan Kaiser, Chairperson of the Cardano Foundation, says:
“With Alix’s appointment, we are further strengthening our community management function as the Cardano Foundation accelerates global community growth strategy. Her experience in emerging markets and with developers will be valuable and very timely as Cardano is preparing to invite Dapp developers and corporate partners to expand ada’s user base in developing nations. Alix’s leadership and marketing management experience and background in storytelling will cement the Foundation’s goal to better serve the community.”
Prior to joining the Cardano Foundation, Alix was a Chief Marketing Officer at Coinone, one of South Korea’s top cryptocurrency exchanges. Before that, she has worked as a marketing strategist at major multinational organizations, such as EY (Ernst & Young), Motorola, Samsung Electronics and Korean Air. A native of the South Korean capital, Alix has built a strong presence in the startup space working at IGAworks, one of the country’s leading mobile ad tech startups. She also ran her own business to help startups grow and scale in Southeast Asia.
Alix has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University (USA) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, French Language and Literature from the Sogang University (South Korea).
Rumours
No updates
Social media metrics
Social media activity:
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Cardano Facebook likes, Reddit subscribers and Twitter followers. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
