After a month of testing, Cardano’s Mary network upgrade has been scheduled to go live on mainnet next month. Cardano, a decentralized open-source project that runs a public blockchain platform for smart contracts, has recently released a date for its long-awaited Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event dubbed “Mary.”
According to an update on Tuesday by the project’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, the network upgrade will take place on March 1st, after completing all the quality assurance and developer checks for HFC on February 24th.
With this initiative, for the first time in Cardano’s protocol’s history, users will be able to define their own custom tokens through the multi-asset ledger, adding a new layer of functionality and utility to the Cardano blockchain.
What is Mary Hard Fork?
Mary hard fork is one of the most important events to occur on the Cardano blockchain since the roll out of Shelley in July 2020. Named after the mother of Cardano’s native token’s namesake 41 (ADA), Mary Lovelace, the Mary hard fork will be facilitated by IOHK’s HFC 26.
This most-awaited update brings native assets to the Cardano test network and allows developers the ability to create custom tokens or migrate existing projects to Cardano. Mary is expected to fully launch on the Cardano Mainnet by the end of February.
Implications on Cardano’s ecosystem by Mary hard fork
The Mary hard fork is a significant update that opens up amazing possibilities to developers and businesses looking to build on or migrate to Cardano. By allowing the creation of tokens on the Cardano blockchain, Cardano’s decentralized blockchain will be transformed into a multi-asset blockchain.
This is facilitated by the arrival of smart-contracts to Cardano’s blockchain, which will become an integral part of their ecosystem. Anyone can create a user-defined native token on Cardano and begin using that newly created assets.
Native assets could be used to mint NFTs, which can be used to represent a huge range of unique real-world and digital assets. Cardano-based native NFT could be used for creating a unique work of digital art 71 which can be stored on the blockchain forever.
Further this will unleash a wide range of services and solutions such as decentralized finance (DeFi). Native tokens representing stablecoins, wrapped assets, and lending protocol utility tokens will all be instrumental in bringing the world of DeFi to Cardano.
What will Mary hard fork mean to blokchain users?
Adaptation of blokchain technology is accelerating and this implies increased number of users, these users will be from both developed and developing nations. Native tokens, available through the Mary hard fork, could be one of the first features on Cardano that can be tailored for financially underserved communities.
Native tokens could also make it easier for individuals in emerging economies to take payments for services from overseas. Native tokens pegged to fiat currencies as a stablecoin, such as Tether (USDT) 3, could facilitate the instant cross-jurisdiction settlement of assets.
By giving every user the ability to generate user-defined tokens on Cardano, Mary opens the door to a long list of new applications, limited only by the users’ imaginations.
Price Target to 10$ per ADA
Cardano has shown a steady increase in price in the crypto market. As of today, Cardano has the third highest in terms of marketcap and steadily rising. The price prediction for Cardano is 10$ to complete with Ethereum.
Summary
Mary hard fork will be a historic event for the Cardano blockchain. Native tokens on Cardano are user-defined, meaning that Cardano’s community is free to unleash their creativity and entrepreneurship when deploying tokens. This holds the potential to empower many individuals who have an interest on the field.
