An upgrade to improve security and interoperability features on the Cardano blockchain was pushed live in early Asian morning hours on Wednesday.
Dubbed “Valentine,” the upgrade will make enhancements to cross-chain functionality for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications building on the network. It was proposed earlier in February and voted favorably by network validators, as CoinDesk reported.
The upgrade is said to bring enhanced cryptographic features to Cardano while improving cross-chain decentralized application (dapp) development on Plutus – the smart contract platform of the Cardano blockchain.
“Interoperability is key for blockchain growth. As more DApps are built on Cardano, it is essential that they are not siloed to just one ecosystem, enabling users to interact with different blockchains and access a wider range of services,” Cardano developer and code maintainer said in a tweet.
Cross-chain bridges are software applications that enable transactions to occur between various blockchains.
Such a feature on Cardano would allow developers to build applications that connect Cardano with other blockchains, which would in turn give users access to other blockchains to interact easily with financial services offered by Cardano dapps.
Dapps rely on smart contracts instead of middlemen to offer financial services, such as lending and borrowing, to users, who often use that dapp’s token or are rewarded in those tokens.
This, in turn, would likely improve the utility of Cardano’s native ADA tokens. As such, Wednesday’s upgrade preceded buying pressure on the tokens, with prices up 8% in the past 24 hours – outperforming bitcoin and ether.
The locked value of tokens on Cardano-based dapps has increased over 100% since the start of January to over $110 million, suggesting demand.
All writers’ opinions are their own and do not constitute financial advice in any way whatsoever. Nothing published by CoinDesk constitutes an investment recommendation, nor should any data or Content published by CoinDesk be relied upon for any investment activities. CoinDesk strongly recommends that you perform your own independent research and/or speak with a qualified investment professional before making any financial decisions.
Recommended Content
Editors’ Picks
Prisma price tanks 25% after nearly $9 million exploit
Prisma Finance (PRISMA) is being exploited, and the attacker has so far pulled $9 million in Ethereum from the borrowing protocol. Prisma asked vault owners to take the necessary steps to protect funds from the ongoing attack in an official tweet on X.
Meme coins gain traction after SEC’s partial win in Coinbase lawsuit: DOGE, SHIB, BRETT, POPCAT, BODEN
US SEC pocketed a partial win in its lawsuit against Coinbase, ushering a correction in crypto prices on Thursday. Despite the broad pullback, prices of meme coins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Solana-based BRETT, POPCAT and BODEN increased.
Ondo moves $95 million worth of OUSG assets to BUIDL as tokenized fund attracts $245 million since debut
Ondo Finance (ONDO) announced on Wednesday that it's shifting about $95 million worth of its OUSG's underlying assets to the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL).
XRP price stuck below $0.65 resistance, Ripple lawsuit could suffer from Coinbase defeat
XRP price falls slightly to $0.61 on Thursday after its landmark programmatic sales ruling in July, which gave Ripple a partial victory against the US SEC, failed to reverberate in a similar legal battle between the regulator and crypto exchange Coinbase.
Bitcoin: BTC may have recovered, but is it out of the woods?
Bitcoin’s (BTC) upward momentum has shown a significant decline for the past two weeks or so. This development led to a bearish signal on the weekly and an uncertain outlook on the monthly.