Cardano Launches Latest Version Of Alonzo Testnet, Dubbed Alonzo White

Blockchain platform Cardano is getting closer to a final release of smart contracts on its mainnet. The firm announced the launch of another upgrade in the Alonzo testnet called Alonzo White.

Cardano Expanding Support For Smart Contracts With Alonzo

The Cardano team of developers, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), announced the successful hard fork of the Alonzo testnet in a tweet.

“Over the past week, we have spun up a new network and onboarded our new intake ready to help us move us closer to smart contracts. Now the next stage of the journey begins,” IOHK said in part.

The Alonzo White is the upgrade that follows after Cardano's previous testnet, Alonzo Blue, was released in May this year. The third upgrade called the Alonzo Purple is scheduled to launch in September this year.

The Alonzo hard fork is part of Cardano's expansion plans to introduce smart contracts to the blockchain. With these smart contracts, decentralized applications (dapps) would be built on top of Cardano, allowing it to compete with blockchains like Ethereum and Polkadot. ETH -2.12% Ethereum / USD ETHUSD $ 1,267.42
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While Alonzo Blue offered smart contracts to only a few sets of technical insiders, the new Alonzo White upgrade lets more people in. Now, about 500 validators, stake pool operators, and developers can test out the feature.

Meanwhile, Cardano has also announced that its Cardano 360 event slated for this month would hold on July 29th. This event would offer technical and commercial updates of Cardano within its ecosystem.

Founded in 2015 by Mathematician and co-founder of Ethereum Charles Hoskinson, Cardano is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network.

The platform, which calls itself a third-generation public blockchain was created to address scalability, sustainability and interoperability issues as seen on other blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. BTC -1.00% Bitcoin / USD BTCUSD $ 17,052.82
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Cardano Won't Release Smart Contracts By October

As Cardano moves forward with its smart contract plans, some users do not believe that the smart contract functionality will go live on the mainnet soon.

According to a prediction market called Polymarket, 68% of bets project that smart contracts will not be live on Cardano by October 1, as stated on its roadmap.

Although tech timelines are known to be unreliable and hard to predict sometimes, the Alonzo testnet has been making steady progress so far.

The Alonzo hard fork marks the last phase under the network's Goguen era. Cardano already launched the Allegra and Mary Hard fork under Goguen. While Allegra was executed last December as the upgrade that brings token locking to the blockchain, Mary was launched in March this year.

The Mary hard fork turned Cardano into a multi-asset network that can potentially support different crypto assets.

According to the roadmap, Cardano's development is organized into five eras. Other phases apart from Goguen include Byron, Shelley, Basho, and Voltaire.