Cardano Ignites Explosive Start After Upgrade With Hundreds Of Smart Contracts

• Cardano’s blockchain has over 200 smart contracts in the network just days after it added smart contract functionality.
• According to Vercel, the number of smart contracts is as high as 2,541 as the network experiences a flurry of activity.
• The flipside to this is that the smart contracts are in a timelock pending their release.

After the widely anticipated Alonzo hard fork, Cardano’s community had significant cause to rejoice as the network finally embraced smart contract functionality with the latest upgrade. Since then, it has wasted no time in hitting the ground running as it seeks to catch up with Ethereum.

Over 200 Smart Contracts

September 12th will be forever etched in the memory of Cardano’s community as the date that it silenced critics with the successful Alonzo hard fork to support smart contracts. Since then, the network has recorded a flurry of activity around the creation of smart contracts with the number of created contracts surpassing 200.

Blockchain explorers like Vercel peg the number of smart contracts at a staggering 2,451 contracts which stands a testament to the boisterous nature of Cardano’s community. However, the snag in all of this is that the smart contracts are all under a timelock. This implies that they cannot be utilized by the developers until their release but there is a silver lining to this cloud as projects have ample time to develop their applications.

The large number of smart contracts on Cardano does not come as a surprise to analysts considering the fact that more than 100 were created within the first 24 hours. This growth can have a positive effect on Cardano’s price in the future as users will require ADA to interact on the network.

Cardano To Sail In New Waters

The regime of smart contracts will open Cardano to the frontiers of decentralized finance and applications. Although Ethereum has the advantage of being a first mover, it has been plagued with issues like surging gas costs, spurring users to look for an alternative.

According to Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson, the development leaves the space “up for grabs” as the competition stiffens. He said that Cardano was designed to lead the charge for the second wave of DeFi that will be characterized by interoperability, liquidity, and above all, uphold the ethos of decentralization.

While the community is ecstatic, Tim Harrison, Marketing & Communications Director noted that “user experiences may not be perfect” and that hurdles may be faced along the way because this is only the early phases of the smart contract functionality.

A large number of smart contracts on Cardano in under a week points to the immense confidence that users have in the network. It is believed that this will have a domino effect that will attract even more users to the network.