By Alicia Maher
Emerging facts have revealed that the recently integrated feature on the Cardano blockchain may not be for smart contracts despite the hype that trailed its launch. In a recent tweet, Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson disputed the term ‘smart contract’ and argued that it is a misrepresentation of the new functionality which became effective on September 12.
Hoskinson’s argument did not end there, he suggested a new name for the new feature. According to the founder, Cardano’s new feature should instead be addressed as programmable validators. However, Hoskinson did not state if the ‘programme validators’ are meant to perform the same function as smart contracts.
Smart Contracts Cannot Be Deployed on Cardano, Developer Says
Input Global’s dev Matthias Benkort was the first to point out the anomaly. In a report, he compared Cardano with other smart contract-enabled blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana and noted that the former is different since its programmable capability adopted a unique transaction model known as eUTXO. Thus, smart contracts cannot be deployed on Cardano, Benkort added.
The hype Cardano generated in the last few months beginning from June, is attributable to the proposed smart contract. Following the spillage of the latest facts, this has confirmed the assertions of Cardano detractors who had in the days leading to Alonzo’s launch argued that Cardano couldn’t attain a smart contract status.
Smart Contracts Term For Marketing Purpose, Developer Reveals
Tagging the Alonzo upgrade as a smart contract feature may have been purely for marketing purposes, developer Benkort reasoned. Benkort said the community is mixing up both terms- smart contracts and validators.’ The developer however admitted that addressing the new feature with specific terms on-chain validators or off-chain code would have been bad for marketing. He concluded that ‘smart contracts’ is not a precise term.
Perhaps this is why Cardano’s native cryptocurrency, $ADA failed to register any movement to the upside after Alonzo’s launch. Disappointingly, the fifth-largest crypto plunged by 13% leaving investors and community members in utter dismay. Notwithstanding, it was reported that 100 smart contracts were deployed on Alonzo within 24 hours.
Few days after the launch, controversy ensued over its concurrency issues, which users who tried to interact with the first DEX on Cardano, Minswap experienced. Some critics had claimed that the transaction model adopted on Alonzo was incompatible or outdated. But Charles Hoskinson came to the blockchain’s defense and attributed the fault to Minswap dev.
The IOG CEO noted in a separate statement that even though Cardano is trailing behind Ethereum in terms of decentralized applications, there was no first-mover advantage. Hoskinson had earlier highlighted the disadvantages of the first-to-market approach, citing cross-chain DEX Poly Network, which recently suffered a $600 million exploit. He concluded that cryptocurrency projects are in a pool next to an ocean with no one being the best.