Harrison Shares Details of Upcoming Update to Cardano Blockchain

Cardano (ADA) developer Tim Harrison shared the details of an upcoming blockchain update designed to improve interoperability as well as enable the development of decentralized cross-chain applications. The update will directly impact the cryptographic primitives used in Cardano and will bring support for common digital signature standards to the Plutus smart contract platform, making it easier to create cross-chain projects.

According to Harrison, the difference in algorithms we have now requires a lot of time, attention, effort and money when dealing with other blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The developer says this not only requires a large amount of resources, but also increases security risks. Therefore, in addition to support for Cardano’s core digital signature algorithm Ed25519, there will also be embedded features to support ECDSA and Schmitt signatures.

Interestingly, the core algorithm in Cardano is currently also used in Monero (XMR) and XRP. The update will take place on the testnets as early as February 11, and on the mainnet three days later – on Valentine’s Day. From now on, a wider variety of multiple and threshold signature designs will be available for smart contract developers at Plutus, providing the highest level of security. As of today, about 5,500 smart contracts have been created on Plutus on Cardano, an increase of 57% since the beginning of December.