The launch of Cardano’s hard fork that started the Shelley era was successful.
This was announced on Twitter by the founder Charles Hoskinson who writes:
“We have reached Orbit. Shelley Hard Fork is Successful. When Shelley? Now!!!!!!!!!! Shelley has fully launched”.
We have reached Orbit. Shelley Hard Fork is Successful. When Shelley? Now!!!!!!!!!! Shelley has fully launched https://t.co/ckuiVJfqnZ pic.twitter.com/jPYG7f5FOq
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 29, 2020
The hard fork was scheduled for yesterday and apparently, everything went according to schedule.
Shelley had been in testing since December of last year, so the development team had plenty of time to review everything.
Now, and throughout the month of August, the operation of the new protocol on the mainnet will be monitored, so that immediate action can be taken in case of unforeseen events or problems.
Charles Hoskinson also stated:
“Decentralization is at the core of everything IOHK does, from the way we structure our company to the blockchain which we have painstakingly built over the last 5 years. The possibilities that this upgrade creates are enormous, this time next year we could see hundreds of assets and decentralized applications running on Cardano, as well as countless innovations and some truly world-changing blockchain use cases.”
On its official blog, the Cardano Foundation explains that Shelley has been through many years of behind-the-scenes development, with almost 80 peer-reviewed research articles and multiple interactions on the testnet.
How does Cardano change with Shelley
With this hard fork, the Cardano network will be much more decentralized, with up to 1,000 staking pools taking an active role in consensus and governance, 485 of which are already active.
In addition, it will allow the staking of ADA on the mainnet, with relative rewards.
Aparna Jue, Product Director at IOHK, explained:
“The Shelley hard fork is the culmination of 5 years’ hard work to create a robust blockchain which is not only built to last, but solves all of the fundamental problems that blockchain technology has encountered since its creation such as interoperability, scalability to meet global demands and, crucially, sustainability. It’s a monumental achievement, but this doesn’t mean we’ll be standing still, and we’re looking forward to the delivery of the Voltaire and Goguen phases of the Cardano roadmap, which will see robust governance arrangements and smart contracts functionality put in place this year”.
Moreover, a guide to ADA staking has been recently published on the official blog of the Cardano Foundation, in order to provide all the necessary information to ADA holders in order to receive the relevant rewards.
Now that the fork has happened, ADA holders will have to update their old wallets and use the updated versions compatible with the new protocol.
The price of Cardano after the launch of Shelley
Nevertheless, the price of ADA has fallen in the last 24 hours. However, it must be said that it is not the only one, since similar drops (-2%) are also affecting Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and EOS.
It is possible that some sales have taken place after the frantic purchases made until a few days ago.
In fact, until the end of May, the price was below $0.06, but in early June, when the first rumours about the date of the hard fork began to circulate, in a few days it went up to $0.09.
From the beginning of July another big wave of purchases started, which brought the price up to over $0.13 on July 8th, and then even to $0.15 on July 26th, when the date of the fork was announced.
Now someone has probably decided to start cashing in on the gains.