Cardano says it has added smart contracts to its network after the alonzo upgrade – while its ada token runs into profit-taking

Cardano says it has added smart contracts to its network after the alonzo upgrade – while its ada token runs into profit-taking

The cardano network now offers users the ability to run smart contracts, following a major upgrade over the weekend, increasing its competitiveness with larger rival ethereum. The network's developers, Input Output HK, confirmed on Sunday over that the planned "alonzo" upgrade had rolled out successfully. In a the same day, cardano said it had deployed "plutus smart contract capabilities", following the completion of the alonzo hard fork. "That's probably the most significant change in the history of the protocol," cardano founder Charles Hoskinson told Insider in a recent interview, in reference to the recent upgrade. This upgrade will allow the implementation of smart contracts on the blockchain, enabling a new sweep of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and . Cardano will now be able to compete with the likes of ethereum, a much larger network, earning itself the nickname of potential "ethereum killer." The alonzo upgrade, named after American mathematician - considered one of the founders of computer science - will allow the network to be used for decentralized exchanges, house and run oracle programs that draw in external data to trigger smart contracts. "They will now get to build it with cost predictability and formal methods and all kinds of