By Solomon Odunayo
The firm behind development in the Cardano ecosystem, IOHK, started the Shelley Virtual Summit with the announcements of five major innovations.
Aside from the release of Shelley code, the major innovations unveiled include the identity solution PRISM, Project Catalyst Voltaire, and the $20 million fund targeted at the development of the decentralized application (DApp) on Cardano (ADA).
Five Major Innovations Announced At the Shelley Virtual Summit
Shelley
The first major innovation announced was Shelley. The firm announced that it has successfully made the biggest update to the Cardano network with the release of Shelley code.
The deployment that took place on 1st July 2020, contained all the features of Shelley that will be implemented as soon as the network undergoes a hard fork at the end of this month.
PRISM
IOHK announced the release of the Atala PRISM solution during the Shelley Virtual Summit conducted on 2nd July 2020.
PRISM is designed to be a decentralized identity system expected to give millions of unbanked the ability to access the blockchain, financial, and social services. It will enhance the safety of sharing personal data via the Cardano blockchain. Its compatibility with other blockchains was also stressed by the firm.
Speaking about PRISM, the CEO of IOHK, Charles Hoskinson said:
“As an open and inclusive system potentially accessible through simple cell phones or paper wallets, this could fuel a new wave of applications extending social and financial systems to millions worldwide.”
Voltaire
The delivery date for the Project Catalyst, Voltaire, was also announced by IOHK. Voltaire is an experimental fund and toolset that will give ADA holders the capability to vote for funding proposal on the Cardano blockchain. According to the announcement, the Project Catalyst will be deployed by the end of the year.
Charles Hoskinson said:
“Ada holders need a simple process where they can directly influence the future of Cardano. This process needs to be fair, usable, and lead to impactful funding decisions, something that to date hasn’t been achieved by any other system in the industry. We’ll be rolling this out in Q4 of this year.
“With a simple mobile interface and voter rewards, our community will be able to fund initiatives they believe in. Project Catalyst primes us for Voltaire and is a huge step in fulfilling IOHK’s promise of a decentralized, fair, and impactful treasury system.”
Project Atlas
In the course of the summit, IOHK also revealed its plan to launch the Project Atlas. According to the announcement, the aim of the emerging innovation is to enhance the user experience on the Cardano (ADA) platform by improving the accessibility of products and tools.
IOHK noted:
“Some of the extended functionality will also include the ability to create alerts for trigger events on-chain and compare non-myoptic performance of stake pools, allowing users to delve into key metrics on status and distributions of stakepools.”
cFund
Lastly, IOHK led by Charles Hoskinson announced the launch of a $20 million technology ecosystem fund – in partnership with Wave Financial Group – the first venture fund to support the adoption of IOHK blockchain platforms, including Cardano (ADA).