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A major crypto project, Cardano, is now officially preparing to enter its final stages of development. On September 2, the Cardano Chang hard fork went live. The ChangeHero team compiled all you need to know about what’s new for Cardano and ADA crypto.
Key Takeaways
- The Cardano development team is about to proceed with another significant upgrade for the blockchain. The Chang hard fork went live on September 1, 2024;
- In addition to more technical improvements to make development on Cardano more streamlined, the Chang hard fork will become the first step toward the final era of Cardano’s evolution. The upcoming Voltaire era will focus on decentralized governance.
- The community response is muted, probably due to the market sentiment skewing toward caution. Nevertheless, it might be the event that brings Cardano and ADA into the spotlight.
What is Chang hard fork in Cardano?
As a blockchain platform in active development, Cardano constantly introduces new features and tweaks. However, the process behind these updates is slightly different due to the decentralized nature of a blockchain platform.
Before any changes to the code are made, the community of network maintainers decides what needs to be improved. Only then do they discuss and propose how. When the software is ready and the majority of network participants communicate their willingness to support the new version, they update the clients by a predetermined date or time.
A new version of the software which is backward compatible with older clients is called a soft fork. An example of a noteworthy soft fork is Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade.
However, if the newer clients become non-backward compatible due to the changes they introduce, ideally all clients must use the newer version. In this case, two scenarios for the old chain are possible. In one, most maintainers use a newer version after the successful completion, and the old chain ceases to operate due to the lack of support. Alternatively, the community chooses to maintain an old version together with the new one. In any case, this is called a hard fork.
Sometimes, to tell two versions apart, the second is called a contentious hard fork. The best-known examples of these are Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin Cash.
The Chang hard fork is not a contentious one and will not result in a new network, blockchain, or cryptocurrency. The working group confirmed community readiness and set a hard fork date of September 1, 2024. Generally speaking, the Chang upgrade will become the stepping stone toward the final era of Cardano development: Voltaire, focused on governance.
The governance model change includes a 90-day transition period. Therefore, the second phase of Chang and complete governance rehash is due to go live around November 29, 2024.
Changes to Cardano Blockchain in Chang hard fork
The previous major Cardano hard fork, Vasil introduced improvements to scripting and network scalability in September 2022. Which improvements will this update bring?
CIP-1694: On-Chain Decentralized Governance
The major improvement proposal that gets integrated into the 9.0.0 version is a full reworking of the governance model in Cardano. After the Chang hard fork, any ADA holder will be able to submit a governance action for approval of the three new governing bodies. Those are a constitutional committee, a group of delegated representatives (DRep), and the stake pool operators (SPO). Voting and ratified actions occur fully on-chain.
A crucial element of the new model’s design is counting the total number of delegated ADA as a whole unit which corresponds to one vote. Unlike the “one token = one vote” model, this principle reduces the influence of large holders on voting, ideally making this more fair.
Plutus v3
The datums introduced in the previous Cardano hard fork, Vasil, although served to streamline interactions between users, proved to be a hurdle for dApp development in practice. By removing the datum script, the CIP-69 intends to unify the arguments in Plutus.
Along with the CIP-69, other miscellaneous improvements to Plutus v1 were included in the release. At the same time, PlutusV3 will also make its way onto the mainnet. This programming language upgrade is aimed at making smart contract and dApp development more efficient, streamlined, and adequate to industry standards.
How to Prepare
Users, regardless of whether they are holders or stakers of Cardano (ADA), do not need to take any action. Node operators and developers must make sure their software is up to date.
You should check with your service providers — exchanges, wallets, etc. — if they will support the Cardano Chang hard fork. A non-exhaustive list is available in the Intersect’s documentation.
At the moment, the network is experiencing a minor glitch, requiring newly synching nodes to replay from genesis. The hotfix release is currently being worked on and will be released on Intersect’s GitHub.
Is it Good for the ADA Price?
Since the Chang hard fork is live and did not immediately impact users, they had plenty of time to ponder the impact of such an upgrade on the ADA price. The native token is going to become a bona fide governance token, so it is speculated that eventually, its value will increase.
As the hard fork was rolling out, Cardano’s price was actually on the decline: on the daily time frame, it was down 4%. At the time of writing this guide, Cardano’s (ADA) price is $0.3344, down another 2.49% in 24 hours. Cardano (ADA) ranks 11th by market capitalization according to CoinMarketCap.
How to Get Cardano (ADA) on ChangeHero?
Planning to stock up on Cardano (ADA) before it realizes its full potential? Swap 200+ cryptocurrencies for ADA quickly and easily on ChangeHero:
- Choose the currencies on the home page, amounts, and the type of exchange. Provide your wallet address in the next step and check the amounts;
- Double-check the provided information, read and accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy;
- Send in a single transaction the sum of the cryptocurrency you will be exchanging. Fixed Rate transactions have a 15-minute limit;
- And now, relax! We are doing all the work: checking the incoming transaction and doing the exchange as soon as it arrives;
- As soon as the exchange has been processed, your ADA is on the way to your wallet. Your feedback is always welcome!
Customer support is available 24/7 via chat on our website or through the email [email protected].
On our website, you can also buy ADA and sell it with a bank card for fiat currencies through our partner’s widget. Check out the full instructions to learn how!
Conclusion
Despite the Chang hard fork undoubtedly being a milestone achievement for Cardano, outside of its community, there is not much talk. Nevertheless, its proponents believe that the new governance model will make Cardano the most democratically governed blockchain network.
Keep an eye on our blog and stay tuned to our X, Facebook, Reddit, and Telegram to stay updated.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is hard fork Cardano?
In Cardano and other blockchains, a hard fork is an upgrade that lacks backward compatibility. As a result, it can lead to a chain split if a part of the community decides to maintain the old version. Examples of this are Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic. Cardano Chang hard fork did not lead to a chain split.
When is Cardano Chang hard fork?
The date of the Chang hard fork activation was September 1, 2024. The transitory period for the new governance model will conclude by the end of 2024.
When is Cardano next hard fork?
The 2024 Chang hard fork became the first step to the last planned stage in Cardano’s evolution. For the time being, no other major milestones like this upgrade are in the pipeline. However, the Cardano blockchain’s government is now in a transition stage, which will be concluded by the end of 2024.
