Building privacy and agency

In the age of information capitalism, data is a commodity which needs to be protected on an individual and global level. Every time someone makes a purchase, logs into an account, or accesses a website, metadata is connected to their individual IP address. Mass amounts of information move around the world every second but if it is not secured through…

As we approach Shelley on the Cardano mainnet, decentralization has, inevitably, become a topic of debate. Regardless of any initial founding intent, proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have become more centralized over time. The early days of Bitcoin enthusiasts mining blocks at the weekend are long gone and today we see a small group of specialized…

Today, we’re kicking off the ‘Friends & Family’ testnet, which will allow us to establish a robust network to test and iterate, before we roll it out to the wider community. We’ve gathered a small number of around 20 ‘pioneers’ to help us with this important initial work. By the time you probably read this, they’ll be briefed and we’ll have things underway.

In my last blog, I…

Since the launch of the Incentivized Testnet marked the coming of the Shelley era last year, the Cardano platform has entered a fast-moving period of development. The Ouroboros Classic consensus protocol has supported Cardano Byron and the ada cryptocurrency for the past 30 months, and we’ll soon be switching to Ouroboros Praos. This is the version of our proof-of-stake (PoS…

Following the successful Byron reboot of Cardano, we are beginning our phased transition to the Shelley mainnet. This means moving from a static, federated system to a dynamic, decentralized Cardano blockchain.

The process begins with a series of Haskell Shelley testnets, culminating in the Shelley upgrade hybrid phase.

The Haskell Shelley testnets will be a different experience…