- The full implementation of Cardano’s Goguen era will be determined by Plutus stress test results while IOHK is pilling it up for Q2.
- After the activation of the Mary hard fork, Cardano will deploy peer-to-peer capabilities.
In an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, Cardano‘s inventor and IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson answered questions from the community about the progress of Goguen. Designed to deploy decentralized finance capabilities, Goguen is moving forward with strong steps, but will still needs time for full implementation.
Therefore, Hoskinson was careful to give specific dates and stressed that Goguen has to go through three hard fork combinator (HFC) events. The first of these events already occurred in December 2020, known as “Allegra”. This first HFC deployed the token locking function
The second HFC, called “Mary“, will activate the function of creating multiple native assets on the Cardano blockchain. In addition, Mary will begin to add the infrastructure that will be used in the Goguen era.
In that sense, Hoskinson stated that Goguen is changing the way transactions work on the Cardano blockchain by introducing the new Extended UTXO model and the scripts for Plutus. Therefore, IOHK has to deploy and test “carefully” the infrastructure introduced with these HFCs.
The Cardano attack surface goes up massively because you go from a collection of predefined scripts to anything that someone can program. It’s super important that everything we think is true is true as we turn on that capability.
To test that the infrastructure and functions operate correctly, IOHK will launch a “developer network” (devnet) and conduct stress tests on Plutus. Several scenarios will be run there to push the platform’s capabilities to the limit, Hoskinson said “there will be so much that we will throw to that to verify that the infrastructure looks good”. Hoskinson further announced:
Around the time of the February HFC event, we’re going to turn on the peer-to-peer capabilities (…). It’s a a big deal, we’ve been waiting for that, we’ve been running simulations, we’ve read a lot of things dozens of times (…). That will be another key piece of decentralization in the ecosystem.
When will the development of Goguen for Cardano be completed?
Plutus’ devnet will determine when the last HFC event will be released. IOHK has scheduled it for sometime in the second quarter of 2021, but the “constellation of additional infrastructure” that will be added with the last HFC must also be considered.
Hoskinson clarified that the Plutus devnet will be the last of its kind for Goguen. Cardano’s infrastructure and smart contract capabilities will be accompanied by the launch of a K Ethereum Virtual Machine (KEVM). This component is another of Cardano’s priorities, while IOHK works to increase the platform’s interoperability with other blockchains.
KEVM will allow developers to migrate applications from the Ethereum to the Cardano ecosystem. In conjunction with this component, the creation of native assets will allow the Cardano decentralized finance ecosystem to grow relatively quickly.