Since the launch of smart contract support, the Vasil hard fork has been a major event for Cardano. The update is designed to increase network bandwidth and reduce developer costs. In just 24 hours, the coin saw its value increase by 5%.

The black streak for Cardano started a year ago with the Alonzo hard fork and the launch of smart contract support. In terms of technology, the network wasn't ready, which resulted in overloads and delays in transactions emerged. Many users erroneously assumed that Cardano simply couldn't process more than one transaction per block. Disappointed investors began to dump the coin, which led to its fall from $3.00 to the current $0.50, and the blockchain dropped from third place in the overall standings to eighth.

Due to the technical failure, Cardano missed the rally in the DeFi sector, which grew from $15 billion to $167 billion in 2021. For example, the newer, faster Solana blockchain saw its value increase from $0.5 billion to $7 billion in Q2 2021 alone.

The first decentralised exchange on Cardano was MuesliSwap, which launched on 26 November 2021. However, the exchange and subsequent startups faced interruptions and delays in their work. As a result, most projects refused to launch right away, anticipating a future hard fork. In its best days, the amount of staked funds in DeFi reached just over $300 million.

With the Vasil update, Cardano should get a second wind, and this year, the network will reach the speeds of Solana, at least according to developer Charles Hoskinson. Over a thousand blockchain-based projects are in some stage of development.

As Aggelos Kiayias, a Cardano developer, pointed out, you can always improve speed and achieve more success by sacrificing security. People are in too much of a hurry, which has turned DeFi into a kind of playground for hackers. Cardano takes an academic approach toward developing and testing new products and evaluating system security, which results in a natural lag behind its faster competitors.

On 22 September, the Vasil hard fork was successfully completed, and full functionality will become available on 27 September. Without going into technical details, as performance and scalability increase, the network should become more secure and less expensive.

StormGain analytics team

(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)