Cardano’s Project Icarus Passes Security Audit, Development as Usual Despite Split from Cardano Foundation

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) has given the Cardano’s smart contracts feature, codenamed Icarus, the green light after a security audit by consistent third-party collaborator Kudelski Security. They conclude that the Icarus wallet is problem-free and completely ready to be adopted.

Project Icarus, announced in August 2018, was a reference implementation that developers could to build their lightweight wallets for mobile devices. Icarus naturally followed the Daedalus project, which was Cardano’s fully-featured wallet.

Lightweight wallets are especially useful for mobile devices because it does not require a user to download the entire blockchain, which can be many gigabytes in size. Cardano’s mainnet launch was accompanied by partner entity Emurgo’s lightweight wallet, Yoroi.

Earlier this month, IOHK announced that it would no longer be working with the Cardano Foundation, with the former stating that they were dissatisfied with the decisions and operation of the latter.

IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson revealed in open terms the struggles that IOHK experienced with the Cardano Foundation, and the reasoning behind the decision to part ways with the Cardano Foundation.

The crux of the issue lay with the the choice of Cardano Foundation director Michael Parsons to reduce the board to 2 members, of which he was one.

Hoskinson began his statement with a remark on how the tripartite division of the Cardano project — the Cardano Foundation, IOHK and Emurgo — was executed with the intent of preventing centralization of power. Parson’s decision, however, went against that vision.

Hoskinson Assures the Community

Hoskinson, beloved by the Cardano community for his candid communications, also conducted a surprise AMA on October 17. In the AMA, he spoke of ICO fundraising, emphasizing that money has little to do with a project’s success or potential.

Cardano itself raised $63 million, a paltry figure compares to the likes of EOS and Bancor, which raised $4.3 billion and $153 million respectively.

The essence of his argument is summed up in one indisputable point where he notes that the two most successful and competent projects, Bitcoin and Ethereum, needed little money to get going:

It’s kind of funny that the number two cryptocurrency raised 18 million to get where it’s at, and the number one cryptocurrency raised nothing. So if you think about that, there is strong evidence in the space – the amount of money you raise doesn’t really have a lot to do with your ability to succeed.

In a time when projects are marketed as the next step in the evolution of distributed ledger technologies, but encounter severe problems upon public release, Cardano does truly stand out as one with the potential to overcome the technology’s current technical limitations. Like OmiseGO and Golem Network, the team prefers to focus on development tasks, rather than resort to marketing tactics and price discussions.  

What’s Next for Cardano

Despite the brief hiccup with the split from the Cardano Foundation, the development team does not seem fazed. Objectives continue to be worked upon, as Hoskinson details in the video, with IOHK and Emurgo taking up the responsibilities of the now absent Cardano Foundation.

With new hires on board to ease the workload, Hoskinson says that he expects the Shelley phase of the project is on schedule to be released early next year.

Additionally, as IOHK and Emurgo now have more tight control over how Cardano carries out its agenda, he expects Cardano Improvement Proposals and blockchain governance ideas to come into play sooner, as the 2 entities can take the initiative to refine Cardano’s network. 

The lack of disruption in Cardano’s roadmap objectives means that investors have several important developments to look forward to as Q4 rolls on.

Most significant of these is availability of the testnet IELE for developers to test smart contracts before they are launched on the mainnet. The release of an Ouroboros paper that explains to developers how to build sidechains is another exciting feature. Both are features are highly useful for parties building customized software on the network.

IOHK and Emurgo may not concern themselves with the price of the ADA token, but if the team keeps to the schedule and implements new features, it bodes well for supporters and investors of the project.