By
Bhushan Akolkar
May 7th, 2024
Cardano’s parent company IOHK announced the platform’s most significant update – Shelley mainnet – which brings a ton of new capabilities and architecture in addition to new PoS staking capabilities.
After five years of development, Cardano has finally moved from the Byron mainnet to a delegated Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Shelley mainnet through a hardfork. Cardano’s parent company IOHK activated the Shelley hard fork on July 29, 2020, at 21:45 UTC. IOHK CEO, Charles Hoskinson, said: “This time next year we could see hundreds of assets and decentralized applications running on Cardano.”
We have reached Orbit. Shelley Hard Fork is Successful. When Shelley? Now!!!!!!!!!! Shelley has fully launched https://t.co/ckuiVJfqnZ pic.twitter.com/jPYG7f5FOq
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 29, 2020
The launch of Shelley, having a delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus, brings new staking capabilities to the Cardano platform. IOHK has also announced that it will reward all users who own the Cardano (ADA) cryptocurrency. Users can earn nearly 5% APY on their staked ADA cryptocurrency. To estimate your staking rewards roughly, you can also check this calculator provided by IOHK.
Cardano currently offers two types of staking facilities. All the advanced users can run their own staking pools, but this will require higher technical management along with reliable uptime. Other average users can delegate their ADA tokens to these tools and earn staking rewards without much effort.
Upon launch, already 444 staking pools are operational on Cardano. Based on the staking pools opened during the testnet, IOHK expects this number to cross 1000.
Besides, users can now directly cold-stake their ADA from their Ledger hardware wallets. IOHK has said that it will soon announce the support for Trezor wallets in the coming weeks. All the user who currently stake between July 29 and August 3, will start receiving rewards on August 18.
Shelley Is the Most Significant Update for Cardano
Long-awaited, Shelley has been one of the most significant updates for the Cardano platform. The Shelley mainnet brings a completely new set of functionalities and architecture for the Cardano platform. Users get to register on-chain staking pools and make them visible to the delegators.
Besides, the staking pools rolled-over from ITN to Shelley will take only a few hours to configure. Apart from staking, the Cardano roadmap suggests that it has a few applications. The “Voltaire” stage will bring the new governance system while the “Goguen” stage will introduce DApps, smart contracts, and custom tokens.
This time next year I predict there will be hundreds of assets running on Cardano, thousands of DApps, tons of interesting projects and lots of unique use and utility. 2021 is going to be so much fun watching Cardano grow and evolve. The community is definitely ready to innovate
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 26, 2020
Speaking about the recent developments, Aparna Jue, IOHK’s product director, said:
“It’s a monumental achievement, but this doesn’t mean we’ll be standing still, and we’re looking forward to the delivery of the Voltaire and Goguen phases of the Cardano roadmap, which will see robust governance arrangements and smart contracts functionality put in place this year.”
The Cardano (ADA) has surged in the top ten ranks and is the seventh most-valuable cryptocurrency with a market cap of $3.6 billion. The ADA cryptocurrency has seen a steady surge in 2020, with its price appreciating more than 300% year-to-date.