Cardano developers enable smart contracts on the mainnet

The company IOHK, behind the Cardano project (ADA), activated the Alonzo upgrade, which for the first time enabled Plutus smart contracts to be deployed on the mainnet.

1/2 Upgrade successful.

Moments ago, we deployed the #Alonzo upgrade at the epoch rollover.

Welcome to the start of a new era for #Cardano $ADA pic.twitter.com/r6QNvTv4pt

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) September 12, 2021

The upgrade occurred on 13 September 2021 at 00:44 (MSK) through the hard fork combinator (HFC) technology.

“The Alonzo upgrade will bring Cardano long-awaited capabilities by integrating Plutus scripting into the blockchain. This will enable smart contracts on the network and for the first time unlock a wide range of new use cases for decentralized applications (dapps),” the developers wrote in a blog.

They warned that this is “only the beginning of the journey.” According to them, some early dapps may prove problematic, and some — unsafe.

“We also can expect that attackers will try to profit from hacks, exploits and the like,” they added.

IOHK noted that this upgrade carries high expectations, but, to some extent, unfounded.

“Cardano watchers may expect that immediately after the upgrade a complex ecosystem of consumer-ready dapps will appear. Here, it is prudent to manage expectations,” the developers noted.

They reminded that Ethereum, the blockchain project launched in July 2015, did not reach the first real popular user application until a little over two years later.

Against the backdrop of the successful upgrade, the price of the ADA token fell by more than 10% — from around $2.70 to $2.40.

In August, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced the launch of smart contracts as part of the Alonzo upgrade. After that, ADA rose by 18%.

In early September, amid the deployment of Plutus scripts on the testnet, the coin hit an all-time high above $3.