The Shelley phase of Cardano

With this article, we will analyze in detail the Byron phase of Cardano. If, on the other hand, you want to learn more about the other phases, you can find the articles below:

The Cardano roadmap: dedicated article to learn more about the roadmap
Byron phase: it’s time for networking with the creation of the connected token.
Goguen phase: the creation of protocols for smart contracts will be achieved, expanding the uses of Cardano to a wider audience.
Basho phase: a phase of the roadmap in which the optimization of network processes will be carried out, offering greater scalability and speed in transactions.
Voltaire phase: the governance of Cardano will be developed with complete self-sustainability in the network from both a technological and an economic point of view.

Introduction

According to the latest updates regarding the Cardano roadmap, we know that the launch period, called Shelley, started as expected, i.e. between the second half of July and the first days of August.

During this period of time, various technical operations were completed, even quite complex ones, but still necessary to promote decentralization and to fine-tune one of the most exciting projects of recent years.

The Shelley era, in particular, has been closely followed by all cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Here’s what you need to know and what improvements have been made for the benefit of ADA holders.

The Shelley phase of Cardano

Many investors wonder about the aims of the Shelley phase and the practical results achieved by the ADA holders. On this point, Hoskinson has repeatedly stated that the goal of this era is to achieve the decentralization of the Cardano network, thus ultimately allowing community control through stake pools. In very simple words, Shelley inaugurates the experimentation of the platform, which will thus be able to enter the hands of investors.

As known, the Cardano project took place in stages, the first of which began in 2014, even if the actual foundation dates back to 2017. The basic idea is to create a platform for smart contracts, as well as for the exchange of value, that combines the best of Ethereum and Bitcoin. All this by adopting an approach that is not only rigorous but also based on scientific rules.

The crux of the Cardano cryptocurrency roadmap is Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. Overall, the project is rather articulated, above all because the individual phases often overlap with each other and are not marked out clearly, precisely to favor a general improvement in performance. On December 17, 2019, Cardano officially entered the Shelley era and IOHK gave the news, even with a certain pride.

More in detail, during the Shelley phase, the developers took care of setting the parameters of stability, interoperability, and governance with great precision. In this regard, Google was chosen as a model. After all, the co-founder of Ethereum has always stated that he relies on the logical infrastructure of the well-known search engine to complete his complex blockchain.

Thanks to Shelley’s era, users can thus obtain numerous advantages, starting from the ease with which individual transactions can be traced. To all this we must add that now finding the data that refer to a specific block takes quite a short time. The reading of the PoS blockchain has also greatly improved because it happens in real-time.

Whoever holds ADA, through Shelley’s operations, will finally be able to delegate funds to a staking pool, in order to receive proceeds based on actual participation, which is done with a few simple clicks. The system continues to rest on the official Cardano wallet, i.e. Daedalus.

Contrary to what one might think, Shelley did not represent the definitive solution to the problem of centralization in PoS, as nothing prevents large stakeholders from acting anonymously to create different nodes. This is why further post-Shelley interventions are needed, focused on the implementation of new linguistic structures and aimed at refining scalability, in order to guarantee greater security.

One thing is certain and it concerns the positive reaction of the markets. Upon Shelley’s news, Cardano in fact recorded a rise of +3.60%, thus recovering from the setbacks that had occurred in the previous weeks. It must also be considered that Shelley’s success is decisive for the entire development of the Cardano cryptocurrency roadmap, based on an academic approach that, inevitably, involves long and not entirely predictable deadlines.

What were Shelley’s improvements?

Everyone who participates in Cardano can now delegate their respective ADA stakes to get rewards. The ultimate goal of this stage of the roadmap is to ensure that permanence on the platform is as stimulating as possible for users. Observing the various stages of Cardano, including Voltaire, it can be deduced that the purpose is that of the total distribution, but also of creating a new application system.

The steps taken so far have all been very thoughtful. For the Cardano blockchain to be fully decentralized it is also necessary that the main nodes can be managed by the network participants. In this way, consequently, the platform can become increasingly stable and secure.

Preparing Shelley was a very long and hard work on the part of the developers. Indeed, the initial project presented a high risk of centralization. In essence, it was feared that the richest nodes, having a greater chance of being selected, would then progressively increase their value. This explains why an effective deterrent was added, namely the Ouroboros protocol. Thanks to this powerful algorithm, it is possible to identify saturated nodes, in order to discourage excessive accumulation.

Through Shelley, ADA holders will be able to join a Pool, obtaining a variable return based on the funds that are actually tied up. From a technical point of view, however, you can count on the Haskell programming language, which is less prone to human error than many others.

The Cardano Settlement and Control Layer, on the other hand, will serve respectively to record the details of the transactions and to trace the specifications on the smart contracts.

Conclusions on the Shelley phase

At present, however, it is of little use to make predictions. However, it is not wrong to consider the Shelley era as the natural maturation of the network, which is now more useful and rewarding for all users and ADA holders, given the rewards system. In the long term, it should also be remembered that the latest update will be launched by the end of 2025, which will lead to the closure of Voltaire. At that point, Cardano will be able to function in a self-sufficient way and will be completely decentralized. It is estimated that it will be able to handle up to 1000 transactions per second.

In addition to Hoskinson’s roadmap, there is news coming soon that affects the evolution of Cardano, such as supply chain traceability, anti-counterfeiting systems, and the Scantrust brand protection platform.