Cardano: IOHK announces performance enhancements post congestion issues

Cardano has finally entered the third stage of its roadmap, the Basho era. It was envisioned to improve the network’s performance and scalability. The launch of the Basho era focuses on scaling Cardano, promising “parameter adjustments, improvements, enhancements and other innovations” supposed to increase the network’s capacity.

Well, the process has commenced with important enhancements. Here’s the latest one –

On track to the moon

Input-Output, the developer behind Cardano, tweeted about the same via a series of tweets. The blockchain’s block size is now on track to increase by 11% as part of its network optimization efforts.

NETWORK UPDATE: Today, we have proposed the next parameter update as we continue to increase #Cardano network capacity in line with the plan. The proposal will increase block size by a further 8KB taking it from 72KB to 80KB.
🧵⤵️

1/9

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) February 1, 2022

As mentioned above, the overall block size would grow to 80 kilobytes. This will be a significant rise compared to the current size of 72 kilobytes. This hike will enable Cardano’s ecosystem to carry out more transactions.

Furthermore, it would supplement the Plutus memory limits rise as well (Would be raised to 14 million units per transaction from 12.5 million).

The increases to block size and memory units will both take effect at the boundary of epoch 319 on 4 Feb at 21:44:51 UTC and are in line with our announced plan to scale and optimize #Cardano network throughput.

3/9

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) February 1, 2022

The team added,

“This adjustment forms part of a planned series of network optimizations. Cardano will continue to be steadily optimized in a series of measured steps this year, carefully & methodically scaling Cardano for future growth as demand increases.”

Reportedly, this update allows Cardano-based decentralized applications (dApps) to run more smoothly amid growing demand. At press time, nearly all blocks were almost full, with the average load well above 85%.

Source: Blockchain Insights

But, why the need? Well, consider this – Last month, the blockchain load spiked to 90% due to increasing adoption. This highlighted an urgent need for scaling up the network. Not so long ago, Cardano’s very first Dapp suffered a major congestion issue just minutes post the launch.

Biggest leap forward

Plutus, the smart contracts platform, experienced significant growth due to the upgrade. The network incorporated more than 100 smart contracts in as little as two days.

Between January 30 and February 1, the number of smart contracts on the #cardano network climbed by 116, bringing the total number on the network to 1,127 as of the first day of February adding over 100 smart contracts in just two days.#ada #crypto #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/ce7Skfbnvy

— Octaloop (@octaloopHQ) February 2, 2022

Even the network’s native token, ADA, surged by more than 2% at press time following this news. It was trading at $1.07. Going forward, Input Output would “carefully monitor” overall network health before proceeding with further adjustments.