Since launching in 2017, Cardano has not stopped evolving. As part of this process, Cardano has created a development roadmap. Cardano Goguen is one aspect of the roadmap, which is focused primarily on smart contracts. Here, we'll be diving into the detail of what it is, and when it is going to be released. So read on, to find out what you need to know about Cardano Goguen.
What is Cardano?
Cardano is a rapidly growing proof-of-stake cryptourrency, founded by one of the co-founders of Ethereum. It uses the same blockchain type principles as other cryptocurrencies, but aims to overcome some of the challenges that they face by using slightly different protocols, to make it more energy, time and cost efficient. The currency has been proposed as both a currency for carrying out transactions and other purposes. One such purpose is in the use of smart contracts, which we'll be looking at shortly.
What is the Cardano Roadmap?
The Cardano Roadmap explains every recent development of the cryptourrency. They have split it into five distinct eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho and Voltaire. Each era focuses on a specific set of functions, with the aim of delivering them across a series of code releases. Each era is likely to take several years of effort to achieve, such is the ambition and complexity involved. You can read more about the roadmap here. It will also provide updates on the progress of each era, the academic research underpinning the work, and other information.
What is Cardano Goguen?
Named after computer scientist Joseph Goguen, this era is all about increasing the capability of the Cardano network. Most importantly, the crypto plans to allow decentralised applications to be built using the Cardano platform.
The central focus of the Goguen era is smart contracts. A smart contract allows a contract to be executed between a buyer and a seller, with the terms of the contract being written into code, which is then stored on the blockchain. A cornerstone of this is the move towards decentralisation, which is what Cardano were working on during the Shelley era. Goguen intends to make smart contract accessible to people who may have no prior technical knowledge, but plenty of specialist knowledge. For example, in complicated financial transactions. This is through a programming language called Marlowe. This will make Cardano a much more enterprise-friendly tool.
In addition to smart contracts, Goguen will be adding a multi-currency ledger. This will allow the creation of new cryptocurrencies on the platform, as well as fungible and non-fungible tokens.
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When is Cardano Goguen Launching?
Given that Cardano is working on multiple projects side-by-side, there does not appear to be an absolutely definitive answer for when Goguen will be finished. It was thought that it might be released at the end of 2020, but this subsequently moved back to March of 2021. At the time of writing, Goguen was still a work in progress.
The latest status updates from Cardano still don't give a definitive date. They do confirm that the building blocks are being worked upon, one of which is something called the Alonzo hard fork. According to a recent Cardano 360 event, it was confirmed that this, the final step in the Goguen era, is aiming to launch at the end of July.
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