It is time for hard forks. Cardano, like other significant protocols, is undergoing substantial updates. The network’s upgrade is one of the most anticipated hard forks, aiming to improve Cardano’s scalability and general usefulness.
With so many users anticipating the Vasil hard fork, it is essential to examine how this may affect ADA.
The Vasil Hard Fork Explained
Before examining its possible influence, it is crucial to understand the hard fork’s technicalities and its intended outcomes.
The update is named Vasil after the eminent Bulgarian mathematician and Cardano community member Vasil Dabov. Together with another hard fork, it will signify the transition to Basho – the fourth development epoch. It seeks to enhance the scalability and usefulness of the network as a whole.
Vasil Hard Fork. Source: Twitter, Cardians
The goal is to implement five significant network enhancements. The following are the Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP):
- CIP-31 provides more access to network-stored information without worrying about the overall churn caused by spending and rebuilding UTXOs.
- CIP-32 reestablishes a conceptually coherent relationship between data and outcomes.
- CIP-33 allows reference scripts to be connected to outputs and to be used to meet script requirements throughout the validation process without requiring spending transactions.
- CIP-40 establishes a new form of output transaction called Collateral Outputs.
CIPs coming with June’s HF:
CIPs (Cardano Improvement Proposals) present new features to the #Cardano network that are key to bettering our blockchain
The upcoming HF introduces:
CIP-31: Reference Inputs
CIP-32: Inline Datums
CIP-33: Reference Scripts
CIP-40: Collateral Outputs pic.twitter.com/bx8vOKDF3H— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) May 2, 2022
The last CIP is called Diffusion Pipelining and aims to improve the scalability of the network as a whole.
Will Vasil be a pivotal event for Cardano?
Given the technological intricacy and strategic relevance of the hard fork in the network’s trajectory, this is a tricky question.
Vasil is a part of the third development epoch, but it is also one of the two hard forks that will usher in the fourth development period, Basho.
There have been other network improvements so far, but Alonzo was the one for which the entire community eagerly awaited. It added smart contract features to the protocol and transformed it into a blockchain used by developers to create decentralised apps (dApps). The event occurred on September 13.
If one enhancement was a turning point, Alonzo was undoubtedly the one. On the other hand, Vasil tries to offer functionality and features that improve the network’s essential characteristics and increase its scalability and usability.
Possible Impacts of the Vasil Hard Fork
Major upgrades like Vasil are sometimes accompanied by significant price volatility in the native cryptocurrency. It seems probable that this time will be no different.
However, it is also important to note that the update has been delayed many times. The proposal was presented on June 28, 2022; however, on July 29, 2022, Kevin Hammond, technical manager of IOG, stated that from the current position, it might be weeks before we reach the genuine Vasil hard fork. All users must be prepared for the hard fork to ensure a seamless procedure.
The issue is that the timeframe for the network upgrade is wildly inaccurate, and at this stage, delays are to be expected. The official blog post from IOHK, for instance, stated that the Vasil hard fork’s key components are anticipated to be released by May.
Given the information above and the several delays, it is doubtful that the update will result in significant price increases. ADA will continue to be a trend-follower rather than a trendsetter.