- Cardano’s SECP upgrade is confirmed for mainnet launch on Valentine’s day, 2023.
- The upgrade is anticipated to increase interoperability for cross-chain dApp developers.
- GitHub has revealed that Cardano had the highest developer numbers on February 9th, 2023.
Input Output Global (IOG), the blockchain technology firm responsible for the development of Cardano (ADA), has announced that the SECP upgrade mainnet launch has been confirmed for February 14th, 2023.
According to IOG, the SECP (SECP256k1) upgrade will make it “easier for developers to build cross-chain applications” with new “built-in functions to Plutus to support ECDSA and Schnorr signatures.”
IOG further disclosed that it aims to ship the new functionality to the pre-production test environment on Saturday, February 11th, 2023.
As Valentine’s Day swiftly approaches, Cardano seems to be setting the mood for developers, and according to a report by GitHub , developers are reciprocating the feeling.
Setting the Mood for Devs
Cardano surpassed 5,000 smart contracts on the network in early February 2023. GitHub revealed daily developer activity on Cardano has been soaring, outranking Vega Protocol, Polkadot, and Decentraland to claim the top spot on February 9th, 2023.
GitHub Daily Development Activity:
— ProofofGitHub (@ProofofGitHub) February 9, 2023
#1: 778 Cardano
#2: 775 Vega Protocol
#3: 677 Polkadot / Kusama
#4: 636 Decentraland
#5: 549 Internet Computer
#6: 477 Ethereum
#7: 475 Klaytn
#8: 417 Holo
#9: 414 ChainLink
#10: 410 Status pic.twitter.com/CrLnEkUKIH
Following Cardano’s Vasil upgrade in September of 2022, the SECP upgrade will add new built-in functionality to the Plutus developer portal that will support ECDSA and Schnorr signatures, making it easier for developers to build cross-chain applications securely.
Plutus only provides Cardano’s primary signature algorithm Ed25519 as a built-in function. Signatures such as ECDSA and Schnorr are widely used in other blockchain platforms like Polkadot. Still, they would be more expensive and time-consuming for Cardano developers “unless also provided as built-in functions .”
The new cryptographic primitives will reportedly allow developers to use a broader range of multi-signature or threshold signature designs native to Cardano, providing higher security and interoperability for cross-chain decentralized application (dApp) development.
The signature designs are expected to make it easier for Plutus dApp developers to work with other blockchains, improving efficiency in terms of the time, effort, and resources required to implement such algorithms.
Despite the proximity of the upgrade and substantial whale buy-ins , the price of ADA remains in the $0.36 USD price range at the time of writing—a 10.06% decrease from its seven-day high of $0.40 on February 6th.
On the Flipside
- Regardless of recent wins for Cardano, if the network cannot inspire positive market sentiment, the viability of the ecosystem in the decentralized space will increasingly come into question.
- The price of ADA has not experienced meaningful change despite numerous developments on the blockchain platform.
Why You Should Care
Cardano’s SECP upgrade displays the #8th ranked network’s commitment to improving its infrastructure for developers. The SECP upgrade could finally bolster the Cardano ecosystem by enticing developers from other blockchains to use Plutus for writing dApps.
