Cardano (ADA), the proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network built on peer-reviewed academic research, is being developed into a decentralized application (dapp) development platform with a multi-asset ledger and verifiable smart contracts.
Cardano’s blockchain aims to be highly scalable, interoperable, and sustainable for real-world applications on an enterprise level to build the economy of the future.
While that all sounds amazing, the project still has a lot of work to accomplish, and IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong), the parent company of Cardano, has released an updated roadmap outlaying progress towards its 2020 vision:
Today, we're very pleased to share our completely redesigned roadmap, charting our progress towards the Cardano 2020 vision. Here's where we'll keep the community updated over the months ahead https://t.co/t1kjKY09lk #Cardano #CardanoCommunity #Blockchain
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) June 5, 2019
Cardano’s 5 Eras
Cardano’s roadmap can be broken down to 5 eras, namely Byron (Foundation), Shelley (Decentralization), Goguen (Smart Contracts), Basho (Scaling), and Voltaire (Governance). Each of the eras is centered around a primary goal with various releases and developments throughout the era to achieve this goal.
The eras are completed sequentially, with research and development of future eras overlapped with one another (some of the work is being done in parallel). The first era (Byron) was officially completed this year, and now the primary focus is on completing the Shelley era.
Currently, Cardano is in the Gougen era but is still very much focused on Shelley, which is supposed to be completed by the end of the year. Shelley’s mainnet is now live, and as its development continues, research and development for Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire will begin in parallel.
Cardano’s roadmap is only updated until the end of 2020. By this time, Cardano’s development is expected to be vastly completed, and the focus will be on the blockchain’s governance (the Voltaire era).
See below, a visualization of the 5 Cardano eras, and how they are being developed in parallel with one another:
Final Thoughts
As seen in the image above, the era we are currently in (Goguen) is right in the middle. It is intended to be one of the most formative eras of Cardano’s roadmap, as it’s tipped to be the one that brings mass adoption. However, IOHK is still working on finalizing Shelley, and then Goguen is set to be completed in the first half of 2020.
By then, it’s expected that Cardano will have achieved a sufficient level of adoption with real-world use cases.
A competing cryptocurrency project that has already achieved real-world adoption is Ethereum (ETH), which is being adopted by enterprise businesses such as Deloitte, Microsoft, Amazon, Ernst & Young, and others.
Therefore, Cardano has some serious competition, and it will be interesting to see how these two projects compete once their roadmaps and blockchain technology are completed.
Do you think there is room for both Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum (ETH) to prosper? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
