The founder of the cardano (ADA) network, Charles Hoskinson, let a few days ago know what else is on the agenda for the network. This week the cardano news stated that the long-awaited Vasil hard fork was launched, but it doesn’t stop there. In the first quarter of 2023, Hydra make his appearance. This is a layer-2 scaling solution with which Cardano really wants to compete with the competition.
Cardano Hydra
According to a developer at Input Output Global (IOG), Sebastian Nagel, the recent major updates to the network have enabled a new step. This new step is Hydra. This is like a second layer that is on top of the mainnet of Cardano is being built to make the network even more scalable.
“In a blockchain network, a consensus algorithm creates a secure and trustless environment by ensuring agreement on a transaction history. Cardano uses Ouroboros, an efficient proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. But Cardano, like any permissionless blockchain, also faces challenges as it tries to scale to achieve the throughput needed to support real-world applications, including payments, identification, gaming or mobile services.”
Hydra must be able to solve the problems of scalability. This layer-2 scaling solution is arguably the top priority for IOG right now, said Nagel. This of course has everything to do with the advantage that the Cardano network can get compared to the competition.
Hydra vs. Bitcoin Lightning Network
According to Charles Hoskinson, Hydra can be compared to other layer-2 scaling solutions, such as the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network or Polygon (MATIC) on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Nevertheless, Hydra will be more effective than any of these projects if we are to believe Hoskinson:
“Hydra is everything Lightning would have wanted to be when it grew up.”
Hydra is still being worked on at the moment. According to Hoskinson, it also took a long time before this development finally started to take shape. According to Hoskinson, this had everything to do with the fact that it was preceded by an enormous amount of research. Hydra is expected to launch sometime in the first quarter of 2023.
