- The update is a critical step in the transition to Shelley phase
- Cardano CEO promised completion before the end of Q1 2019
- The update will bring many great improvements
The IOHK team has finally released the Cardano 1.5 on MainNet. This is a significant milestone as it marks the last release of the much-anticipated Shelley development phase.
The Upgrade is a Smooth Hard Fork
Cardano (ADA) announced via an official blog post on March 20, 2019, and stated that the Cardano 1.5 release would bring significant improvements to the blockchain. The announcement said the performance improvements would include adapting lists with a considerable number of transactions and wallet addresses, an additional feature that detects insufficient disk space and anew screen that pictures the block storage consolidation process. The post states:
“This update brings a new consensus protocol, Ouroboros BFT, which is a key step in the transition from Ouroboros Classic, the current consensus protocol running the Cardano network, to Ouroboros Genesis, the protocol for the Shelley era.”
Following the update, Daedalus users have been asked to migrate to Cardano 1.5 by installing Daedalus 0.13.0 and following the prompts since everyone must upgrade to the new version to make the hard fork.
However, users have been alerted that the Ouroboros BFT will not be immediately activated after deployment of the 1.5 release and they must wait for an announcement on a later date. The update can be considered a hard fork that happens without a hassle since all involved parties agreed to the change.
More Autonomous and Fully Decentralized
The launch on MainNet goes on to confirm the promise given by the CEO and Co-founder of Cardano Charles Hoskinson, who earlier this year assured that the Shelley update could happen before the end of Q1 2019.
Hoskinson had indicated then that up to 90 percent of work for the Shelley release was completed. Cardano’s Shelley release is expected to become a hit within the crypto community because if the technology behind it.
Once the project is completed, Cardano is bound to become both autonomous and fully decentralized besides having 1000 staking pools that will make the system the most decentralized in crypto space.
According to the company’s roadmap, the much-awaited Shelley era brings developments like multi sig transactions, enhanced Wallet backend, light client mode, networking, paper wallets, consensus and incentive fees, open Ouroboros delegation, quantum resistant, a voting center, and human-friendly addresses.
The company will also move to the more secure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system. As per the blog post, cryptocurrency exchanges must migrate from v0 to v1 wallet API before they can upgrade to this release.