Some smart contracts on Cardano may involve high-value transactions. Many developers still rely on security measures commonly used in traditional software development. While manual code reviews, unit testing, and external audits are effective in identifying bugs and other problems, smart contracts pose new and unique challenges. Erroneous or malicious smart contract code could…

What if you could take a smart contract, written using a modern language like Python, TypeScript, or Scala, and run it on Bitcoin without modifying Bitcoin itself?

Thanks to a novel compilation pipeline being developed at Input | Output (IO), that idea is becoming a reality. By combining a serialized smart contract format (Untyped Plutus Core – UPLC), a clever interpreter architecture (Control, Environment, Continuation (CEK) machine), and a widely supported open-source reduced instruction set architecture (RISC-V), IO…

On Cardano, smart contracts are written in powerful surface languages, such as Plinth, Aiken, and Plu–ts, among others. These contracts control real, valuable assets. If they fail, funds could be stolen or permanently locked.

Input | Output (IO) is developing a new tool to bring formal verification to Cardano smart contracts. While existing tools in the ecosystem – based on…

In the second installment of the Cardano R&D Sessions – a monthly series exploring the forefront of blockchain research and development – Input | Output Research (IOR), in collaboration with the Intersect Research Working Group, hosted a dynamic discussion on one of the ecosystem’s most pressing and complex topics: tokenomics.

Bringing together leading researchers and…

Cardano's mathematical foundations and formal verification approach have established it as a leader in blockchain security and reliability. However, these same architectural choices that ensure exceptional security have created a developer experience that requires significant upfront investment in specialized knowledge, tools, and infrastructure. The result is a paradox: one of…