The Voltaire era is one of the most anticipated by the Cardano (ADA) community. It will be responsible for finalizing the altcoin’s five-era roadmap. Do you know what this means?
Cardano was launched in 2017 to be a blockchain that would reach people who had no access to the traditional financial system.
Another major purpose of the altcoin’s development was to address the strategic challenges facing blockchain technology: scalability, interoperability and sustainability.
To this end, the cryptocurrency set itself up to be a standout in the world of smart contracts.
However, until it reached the era where its network would be compatible with decentralized contracts, the altcoin went through a few phases. This is because Cardano has a research-based operating model. In order for everything to run smoothly in crypto’s development, the altcoin’s deliveries have been divided into five eras.
Get to know Cardano phases
It all started with the Byron era, the phase in which the launch of the altcoin occurred, and investors were able to buy and sell ADA. In addition, the Daedalus and Yoroi wallets were built.
Soon after the first era came the phase that would be responsible for working on the decentralization of Cardano, the Shelley era. In the previous phase, the ADA network was federated, that is, centrally controlled by the altcoin team.
However, Shelley was developed to change this scenario and make Cardano’s node run by the community by making use of staking on the network of Ethereum’s (ETH) competitor.
Cardano’s developers focused a lot on one of the big phases, the Goguen era. The wait was long and eagerly awaited, as it was not until 2021 that, through one of Goguen’s hard forks, smart contracts finally arrived in crypto.
With smart contracts in place, the altcoin began to undergo the development of its network scalability during the Basho era. After all, for DeFi and NFTs to be attractive on Cardano, it needed to deliver a scalable network.
With all of these benefits delivered, Cardano enters its prime, reaching the last phase.
What is Voltaire era?
Although it is the last era of Cardano, the altcoin has been working on it for some time. The altcoin’s development company, IOG, worked on the crypto’s phases in parallel, right after the arrival of the Byron and Shelley eras.
Voltaire will arrive with the intention of making the cryptocurrency network self-sustaining through a voting and treasury system. As such, it has already begun to take the first steps by launching Catalyst, a decentralized governance project.
With the latest era, network participants will be able to influence the future development of the altcoin with their shares and voting rights. Furthermore, users will have the opportunity to make suggestions for software updates, and technical and financial improvements to the project.
The treasure from this last era will be available for funding some community-approved Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs). CIPs are responsible for describing standards, processes or providing guidelines or general information to the Cardano community.
This being the case, the altcoin investor can see that Cardano must become more decentralized, evolving the process started in the Shelley phase.
