As researchers around the world work on a vaccine to Covid-19, we look at the ways that Cardano’s innovations could be a framework for collaboration between remote research teams
With the coronavirus keeping us all at home in recent weeks, it has yet to be seen which blockchain initiatives could prove useful in helping to defeat the virus.
Cardano (ADA) bases its outlook on scientific philosophy, so the project could provide a good framework for the scientists around the world currently working on a vaccine to the virus.
Consisting of a team of decentralized engineers and researchers based all around the world, Cardano has set the standard for separated teams working on complicated problems with one end goal in sight.
Here are the three major reasons Cardano could help to improve coordination between research groups and help to shape the global economy post Covid-19.
Reboot of Cardano’s code
A major reboot to Cardano’s code by Hong Kong-based research team IOHK is likely to give the currency a competitive edge.
Dubbed “the Byron update” the process will build Cardano’s code completely from scratch, and is the culmination of 18 months of work by IOHK. The new code is designed to make Cardano more dynamic and powerful, having been built by the Haskell language.
The most significant change is the separation of the different components of Cardano’s blockchain, such as the ledger, node settings and code base, allowing them all to run and be amended separately to make upgrades easier to install in the future.
Innovation like this could be invaluable to research teams working remotely, as it would allow them to dynamically upgrade their operating systems, while still maintaining important and time sensitive research projects.
Cardano’s reboot will also make improvements to its Daedalus wallet, its node network and increase the amount of transactions its blockchain can process.
Backing from PwC
News that Cardano has been backed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the highly influential global firm, is a strong vote of confidence for the cryptocurrency.
Based in London, but with offices located all over the world, PwC has established an impressive portfolio since the establishment of its current structure in 1998, (parts of the merged firm date back to the 19th century) and has amassed an estimated $42.2 billion of assets and holdings.
Gunther Dobrauz, leader of the firm’s legal team, claimed that the Cardano Foundation was “a huge part of the future,” backing which could give investors a confidence boost in the project.
Dobrauz expanded on this further in an interview with CoinTelegraph, stating, “I have followed the work of the Cardano team and indeed the Cardano ecosystem more or less from the beginning and personally believe that they are doing an amazing job and enjoy every opportunity to exchange with and learn from them. The same is true for some other projects out there”
Dobrauz made clear these views were his and did not represent the views of the firm alone, but the statement is still a significant show of support for the project from a potentially significant commercial partner for the project.
Faster than Visa
Another exciting development for the project is the recent release of Ouroboros Hydra, a new protocol that allows significantly faster transaction and blockchain verification speeds.
Hydra also dramatically increases Cardano’s scalability, as the new process can process many more transactions simultaneously, giving Cardano an advantage over Bitcoin for handling and verifying transactions.
Research by the University of Edinburgh also indicates that each of the 10 Hydra “heads” will be able to process 1,000 transactions per second, with room to potentially grow to a million per second – making it faster than Visa, currently the largest payment processers.
Cardano’s Ouroboros Hydra may have cracked one of the biggest obstacles in blockchain technology – scalability. Still a relatively niche industry, in terms of people who own holdings, cryptocurrency projects are yet to be pushed to their limits as mass adoption has not yet been seen.
By developing a scalable protocol that could supersede Visa, combined with the current need for technology to facilitate minimal human contact, Cardano’s Hydra protocol could be game-changing if this pandemic persists for 6 months or more.
US legislators have already discussed using blockchain to create a “digital dollar” to allow for easier distribution in efforts to send each American adult $1,000. Cardano’s technology could potentially propel itself to mass adoption if the coronavirus outbreak is the catalyst for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.