by Lydia Ludmila 
Cardano may finally be ready to launch smart contracts.
Key Takeaways
- Cardano’s team has confirmed that smart contracts are scheduled to launch on the blockchain with the Alonzo hardfork on Sep. 12.
- The launch will allow for DeFi, NFTs, and gaming apps to go live on Cardano.
- Cardano’s ADA token has surged today in anticipation for the update. It’s now the third biggest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Cardano is targeting Sep. 12 for smart contracts to go live as part of the Alonzo hardfork.
Cardano Slates September Release For Alonzo
The team behind the Cardano blockchain has finalized a date for its highly anticipated smart contract rollout.
According to the latest announcement from Input Output, the team developing Cardano, the smart contracts launch will be executed with a hardfork dubbed “Alonzo” on Sep. 12.
It’s happening.
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) August 13, 2021
We’re targeting 12 September 2021 for the ‘Alonzo’ upgrade, bringing smart contracts to Cardano via a hard fork combinator (HFC) event.
Find out more about the journey to a new era of smart contracts, DeFi and more for #Cardano $ADAhttps://t.co/59czSxrxFO
The launch of smart contracts on the Proof-of-Stake blockchain will allow for the launch of dApps covering use cases like DeFi, written in its in-house programming language, Plutus.
In a video stream, Nigel Hemsley, Head of Delivery at Cardano, confirmed the update. “We are rapidly moving towards the hardfork on the mainnet,” he said. “Our engineering and test teams are working extremely hard to make sure components are updated and ready for the final Alonzo release.”
In the past, the team has faced criticism over slow rollouts and the lack of smart contracts. In recent months, Cardano has made significant progress and gradually resolved the schedule towards implementing smart contracts.
Last week, Input-Output implemented Alonzo Purple, the project’s first public test network version. The project is currently at the second-last phase in a series of Alonzo testnets ending with the scheduled mainnet hardfork next month.
Alonzo Purple opens the network up for the community to test the smart contract code, run validator nodes, and stake assets. In terms of the timeline of the mainnet hardfork, the team will finalize the main candidate release of the node in the next week. Furthermore, the focus will be on software testing and last-minute checks to push towards the final deployment.
Preparing for the launch, the team noted that over 140 exchanges would need to be ready with the complete software package, including components like DB-Sync, Cardano wallet, Rossetta API, and GraphQL Explorer. To meet that goal, Cardano Foundation is working with 140 exchanges to start the integration on Alonzo Purple.
Once all the software components are ready, the next step is implementing a final testnet on Sep. 1, which should be the final stage before the mainnet launch.
With the launch date approaching, Cardano’s native token ADA surged today to enter the top three cryptocurrencies by market cap. It’s up 17% in the last 24 hours, with the token trading above $2 for the first time since May.
At a market cap of $64.3 billion, Cardano now trails only the two leading cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and Ethereum.
