Cardano's Vasil Upgrade is Finally Complete

Cardano's Vasil upgrade has been completed. The much-awaited set-off will enable increased network capacity, higher throughput, and lower transaction costs on the peer-reviewed, proof-of-stake blockchain platform.

"The Vasil hard fork moves us towards this goal by improving Cardano's foundational features, upgrading the technology's capacity to transform our traditional financial and social systems, and ultimately advancing decentralised economic empowerment," Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, told The Block.  

The Vasil hard fork focuses on optimisation, scalability and interoperability. It is part of Cardano's Basho era — one of the critical development phases on the Cardano roadmap.

During the upgrade, Vasil required no action for regular ADA holders using Cardano for transactions and dApps as the transition happened behind the scenes.

The upgrade was initially planned for June, but the postponed upgrade also activated Plutus v2 enhancements to Cardano's smart contracts.

The Vasil upgrade has taken the blockchain platform closer in line with the capabilities of Ethereum - the largest smart contract platform. It further opens up the potential for current and new Cardano DeFi projects to create more powerful, efficient, and cost-effective applications.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said, "(We) knew that, over time, we could get to what Ethereum has done, but we understood a road map to get there," ahead of the upgrade about the blockchain platform's gradual approach to adding new capabilities.

The upgrade date was finalised earlier in September by the Cardano-focused research and development company, Input Output Global (IOG). The decision was made after the critical mass indicators required were completed and successfully gained assurances from staking pool operators, exchanges, and dApp communities stating that they were ready for Vasil.

According to The Block, the Vasil upgrade was conducted in collaboration with people from across the Cardano ecosystem from the core development team, the Cardano Foundation, IOG, Emurgo, and the wider Cardano community via technical Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs).

Cardano stated that the upgrade promises increased functionality, performance and scalability. The new Vasil capabilities will be available on the mainnet after one epoch, on Sept 27.

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