Cardano’s Upgrade, Solana’s Downtime, Fidelity’s SEC Challenge & More
Every Thursday, we put our fingers on the pulse of the crypto community to see what made your heart beat faster this week.
This week, what had our Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) followers talking was Cardano’s (ADA, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) Alonzo hard fork launch. The Alonzo hard fork was a major upgrade on the Cardano network. It saw the much-anticipated implementation of smart contract functionality.
Smart contracts are pieces of computer code that automatically execute when certain predefined conditions are met. The Alonzo update enabled smart contracts to be created and deployed on the Cardano network.
Now decentralized applications (dApps) can be built around these smart contracts. With this dApp functionality, Cardano’s ecosystem will be able to expand significantly.
On Sunday, Alonzo went live, and with it, the smart contract capabilities for ADA. This is a HUGE milestone for both the cryptocurrency and the developers:
#Cardano team is clearly more organized now than during the time before #Shelley - especially when it comes to sticking to launch dates. That in itself is a commendable feat, when one takes into account just how notoriously hard experimental software development is. #ADA
— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) September 14, 2021
If everything goes according to plan, things should start looking up for Cardano …
… which is the absolute opposite of what can be said for Solana (SOL, Tech/Adoption Grade “D+”).
The network was out for over 16 hours due to the overload caused by transactions that were too numerous for the system to handle.
Our take was unanimous:
1/ #Solana is functional again after major downtime. This project, like many others before it, seeks to dramatically increase transaction speeds by "cutting corners" in the area of decentralization. (THREAD)
— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) September 15, 2021
Meanwhile, Polygon (MATIC is testing new grounds while relying on the tried-and-true Ethereum (ETH, Tech/Adoption Grade “A”) infrastructure. The result is both acknowledgement and adoption by one of the largest professional services networks in the world, Ernst & Young:
1/ Ernst & Young is about to integrate #Polygon as a scaling solution for their corporate clients that are performing transactions on #Ethereum, as Polygon offers predictable transaction fees (~ $0.00001) and settlement (2 secs).
— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) September 14, 2021
In other news, Fidelity is knocking on the SEC’s doors, pleading its case for its proposed Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust Bitcoin ETF, just like many who tried before it. And just like many who came before it, Fidelity will most likely have a hard time convincing the SEC:
1/ #Fidelity had a private meeting with the #SEC to pitch its #Bitcoin #ETF proposal. If we know one thing about the SEC is they've really dug in their heels when objecting to a Bitcoin ETF. (THREAD)
— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) September 15, 2021
Finally, the last important news of the week is an amazing El Salvador Bitcoin saga.
Sadly, for Chivo — El Salvador’s government-approved Bitcoin (BTC) wallet — things didn’t go so smoothly last week. However, we weren’t so fast to dismiss an entire endeavor just because of a few hiccups:
El Salvador's state #Bitcoin wallet has continued facing issues one week after its official rollout. However, as this is a massive undertaking in a very short time, it is expected to run into some hic-ups. Getting to this stage is still a very impressive feat! #BTC $BTC
— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) September 14, 2021
Indeed, this week the pace is picking up, as Chivo recently got its 500,000th user. We hope that with the adoption, the stability issue also gets taken care of.
We’re also hopeful that in time, other countries follow El Salvador’s example, rescuing their citizens from fiat currencies — the ever-crumbling pillars of the traditional finance system.
Until then, we will be keeping a close eye on the rest of the crypto world. And we want you to be an active participant in our discussions.
What would you like us cover in this space? Send a tweet our way at https://twitter.com/weisscrypto.
Feel free to include a hashtag like #NFT, #Cardano, #ADA or #Bitcoin so that we will see — and potentially respond to — your comments faster.
Until next week,
Jurica Dujmović
