- The DB Sync team is integrating Conway’s functionality in db-sync, enhancing Cardano’s blockchain efficiency and robustness.
- The Marlowe team’s focus on optimizing smart contracts involves performance testing and merging real-world applications into Cardano’s framework.
In the Cardano ecosystem, recent developments reflect the dynamic and evolving nature of this cryptocurrency space. The DB Sync team is preparing a new version of db-sync for the main network, also integrating Conway’s functionality to enhance its modularity. This is key for maintaining the efficiency and robustness of the Cardano blockchain infrastructure.
Advancements in Smart Contracts by the Marlowe Team
The Marlowe team, focused on smart contracts, has made significant progress. They are developing marlowe-cardano, creating a process for performance testing and improving evaluation. This includes security analysis using the provided state and resolving references from the Wolfram oracle.Â
Their efforts in optimizing the Marlowe Runtime and merging real-world-marlowe with marlowe-hackathons into the contracts folder are important steps in enhancing Cardano’s smart contract capabilities.
The team has also phased out several modules like marlowe-streamer, marlowe-signing, marlowe-scaling, and marlowe-finder. They are assessing the support for key CIPs to guide future development. Additionally, the Marlowe safety documentation has been updated to comply with security standards.
Scalability Efforts by the Hydra Team
The Hydra team, dedicated to improving Cardano’s scalability, has been planning and introduced a significant API change to eliminate JSON encoding of transactions. They are also developing a backend for hydra-explorer and implementing off-chain logic for incremental decommits, demonstrating their commitment to Cardano’s scalability solutions.
Innovations from the Mithril Team
The Mithril team is working on a new data type to certify Cardano transactions within Mithril networks. They have completed transaction set signing and implemented the aggregator route for generating membership proofs for Cardano transactions.Â
Additionally, they have improved the resilience of calculating immutable file lists in a Cardano node database and expanded end-to-end test coverage in CI to include multiple versions of the Cardano node.
Progress in VOLTAIRE & SANCHONET
A major feature in Conway has been developed, enabling stake pool operators to vote on protocol parameter updates related to security. The team has addressed issues allowing committee members to vote on governance actions beyond their access and implemented safeguards against orphaned reward accounts.
Project Catalyst’s Community Funding
Project Catalyst is in its second week of voting in Fund 11, with nearly 5,000 wallets casting over 150,000 votes on 920 proposals seeking community funding. This indicates strong community interest in financing innovation in Cardano. Results are expected around February 15th.
Educational Initiatives
The education team is planning the second iteration of the Cardano developer training course in collaboration with the African Blockchain Center. They are also updating lessons in the Haskell Bootcamp course.
These developments across the Cardano ecosystem highlight concerted efforts towards improving the platform’s capabilities in smart contracts, scalability, governance, community engagement, and education.
