Welcome to the Cardano Community Digest!
Published by the Cardano community team every two weeks, this Digest will provide you with news, updates and events about the project and ecosystem!
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Focal points of the week
Save The Date! The Cardano Summit 2023 Dates Have Been Confirmed!!
The highly anticipated Cardano Summit 2023 is set to take place in Dubai from November 2-4. This three-day event will bring together developers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, and industry leaders from around the world to explore the latest advancements in the Cardano ecosystem.
With an expected lineup of interesting keynote speakers, panel discussions, and interactive workshops centered around operational resilience, education, and adoption, attendees will have a unique opportunity to learn from industry experts and influencers, share their ideas and insights, and network with other members of the Cardano Community.
Anyone interested in joining can sign up for the event and obtain further details on the venue, schedule, speakers, and events via the official Summit website:
Blockchain Alpha Education Program is now Live
The Cardano Foundation announced its release of the Alpha Education Program, a comprehensive course designed to provide detailed insights about blockchain technology, available for free to anyone interested.
The goal of this program is to make it easier for people to understand the complexities of blockchain technology, its various use cases, and how it can be leveraged in different industries.Blockchain technology has the potential to transform the world we live in, and it requires educational resources that will help people understand and explore this exciting technology.
This first stage of the Alpha Program is all about feedback from its 600+ testers that signed up for the program during and after the Cardano Summit 2022. This feedback will help to to improve the course, ensuring that it is accurate and relevant to learners of all backgrounds and levels of experience.
Overall, the Alpha Education Program is an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to learn about blockchain technology and its potential applications.
To ensure you don’t miss out on the next round, we encourage you to sign up now, and we’ll grant you access later this year: https://education.cardanofoundation.org.
Milkomeda’s Innovation Set to Propel Cardano as the Largest EVM Chain
Sebastien Guillemot, co-founder of Milkomeda, has made a groundbreaking announcement regarding Cardano’s future. According to Guillemot, Cardano is positioned to become the top EVM chain by next month. This will be made possible by Milkomeda’s introduction of a new feature that allows Cardano users to access any EVM contract directly from their Cardano wallet.
According to Guillemot, Milkomeda is also set to launch staking rewards for all EVM users, including smart contract developers, which potentailly could lead to Cardano becoming the largest EVM-compatible chain in terms of user base size and with a fully operational staking rewards system.
Voltaire Update
Last week, the Cardano community participated in an engaging governance workshop focused on discussing CIP-1694. The workshop was started by Kevin Hammond, Technology Manager at IOG, who informed attendees about the recent updates to the CIP, which we had previously discussed in the Community Digest March 20th. The link to the workshop invite was provided via a post on the Cardano Forum. Reading through the posts carefully is always a good idea to ensure you get all the announcements.
After Kevin’s recap, he and Jared Corduan, one of the co-authors of the CIP, answered questions from the audience during a Q&A session. Followed by Charles Hoskinson, who also gave a short speech during the workshop, emphasizing the significance of community governance and his commitment to funding community tooling to address governance needs.
Following the presentations, participants had the opportunity to join four dedicated breakout sessions, each led by a different member of the community:
- Metadata Standards for 1694 led by Pi Lanningham
- Incentives for DReps & Voters, led by Juana Attieh
- Community Tooling, led by Lloy Duhon
- Voting Thresholds, led by Kevin Hammond
During the breakout sessions, participants brainstormed ideas related to the topic and added them to sticky notes on a Miro board. Members then conversed and sorted their sticky notes into Minimal Viable Governance (MVG), Post-MVG, and Off-Chain sections.
- Metadata Standards:
- Incentives for DReps & Voters
- Community Tooling
- Voting Thresholds
What else is happening in the age of Voltaire?
We would like to highlight a well-written forum post by Adam Rusch on why “Quadratic Voting is not a silver bullet for Governance.” Another exciting development popped up regarding the Cardano Constitution. The Cardano Professional Society on Matrix, spearheaded by Michael Liesenfelt, started their effort to draft a Cardano Constitution. Everyone is welcome to participate in the conversation and help with its creation.
To stay informed about what’s happening in the age of Voltaire, check out the Governance category on the Cardano Forum.
Other Cardano related News
- The Cardano Foundation recently outlined the benefits of using the Cardano blockchain as a platform for project development. Some of the advantages of Cardano reported upon include its superior storage solutions, such as its flexible programming and ample data storage capabilities, and its deterministic fees - offering cost predictability, early identification of failed transactions, and straightforward scalability options.
- Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, appears before the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to discuss the CBDCs.
- Genius Yield has announced the open-sourcing of Atlas, a Plutus Application Backend (PAB) in Haskell, which will allow developers to interface with the Cardano blockchain and execute Plutus smart contracts. Atlas is expected to speed up the creation and deployment of high-quality dApps on Cardano, as well as increase innovation and developer adoption on the platform.
- Jingles, co-founder of Mesh, discusses how the open-source software developer kit aims to improve the Cardano developer experience. Mesh provides necessary resources to build impactful apps on the blockchain. Jingles talks about Mesh’s features, why they chose Cardano, and their plans, including a bounty program and library improvements.
Cardano Reddit Top 10 Most Engaged Topics
Below are the most engaging topics on Reddit
- The number of ADA holders grow despite the bear market
- Has anyone visited the IOHK home page recently? WOW!
- Heil Hydra…
- Open Source game engine integration demo
- ADA is a resource that decentralizes Cardano
- UPDATE: Cardano Cross-Chain Bridges and Other Interoperability Solutions
- Cardano 2023 upcoming developments
- Cooper and Kirk Choke Point 2.0 - Charles Hoskinson YouTube
- A part from ATALA PRISM and HYDRA, what are the projects going live this year ?
- The Five Pillars of the 21st Century
Cardano Forum Top 10 Top Referred Topics
Topics that have received the most clicks from external sources. (last 10 Days)
Seminar: Aufsetzten eines Cardano Staking Pools - Im Linuxhotel EssenRecently held Meetups
Other meetups around the world:
| 10 March 2023 | The Catalyst Africa Town Hall. More Information |
|---|---|
| 10 March 2023 | Cardano MENA Community zoom Meeting # 1. More Information |
| 18 March 2023 | Cardano Campus Meetup - Ghana Edition #2 More information |
| 19 March 2023 | Cardano Jakarta Hub Meetup. More Information |
| 24 March 2023 | Empowering the Cardano Community in Africa: A Summary of the March 24th Catalyst Africa Town Hall. More Information |
Recently held Ambassador Calls
- 08 March 2022 Open Moderator Call
- 15 March 2022 Open Content Creator Call
- 16 March 2023 Monthly Ambassador Call
- 22 March 2023 Open Meetup Organizer Cal
- 23 March 2023 Monthly Ambassador Call
- 03 April 2023 Open Translator Call
Bi-weekly CIP editor Meeting on Discord
Are you interested in attending CIP editor meetings? Join the Discord channel to learn more about this interesting community where ideas and recommended changes are all discussed.
What happened in CIPs last week? (by @RyanW)
CPS-??? | Governance Security [New Problem]:
- This problem statement describes security issues to be considered by protocol governance CIPs.
Continued Recommendations:
CIP-0057? | Plutus Smart-Contract Blueprints:
- This proposal specifies a language for documenting Plutus contracts in a machine-readable manner.
CIP-0038? | Arbitrary Script as Native Script spending conditions:
- This CIP introduces a way to use native scripts as a starting point for more complex interactions which helps unlock use cases such as simple proxy contracts.
CPS-02? | Pointer Address Removal:
- This problem statement proposes the removal of pointer type addresses.
Next Meeting:
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CIP Editors Meeting #63 (tomorrow):
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April 4th 5:30 GMT
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Postponed from March 28th
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Held on Discord - here.
-
Agenda TBC
Weekly CIP updates can be followed and reviewed here:
Cardano Wiki
The number of ADA holders grow despite the bear market
Total Value Locked (TVL) makes a new ATH regularly. That’s definitely a good thing for DeFi, but it’s not the only important indicator we should be concerned about. More important is the activity on the network and the number of users. Cardano is growing in these stats as well. In this article, we will focus on the number of non-zero balance accounts.
TLDR
The Shelley and Alonzo hard forks were significant milestones for Cardano. Account growth increased 12-fold in 2 years based on these events. The number of new accounts continues to grow in the current bear market. Cardano is slowly getting into a similar situation as Ethereum in 2017 when the number of accounts grew 4-fold. Cardano has a chance to reach the 10M account mark with non-zero balances in 2025. If that happens, Cardano will be almost unstoppable.
From hundreds of thousands of users to millions in 2 years
The path to a high network effect always starts with a small number of users. Blockchain protocols are much like social networks. Their use is completely voluntary and is mainly determined by user preferences and the network effect already obtained. All newer projects have the slight disadvantage of catching up with existing ones. The blockchain industry is still very young and major waves of adoption are still ahead. It is still realistic to catch up with existing rivals in user numbers. All current dominant blockchain projects started with literal units of users. Within a few years, they have reached millions of users. This is true for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and, as you will soon see, at the moment also for Cardano.
There was a Shelley hard fork in July 2020 which opened staking for ADA holders. Alonzo hard fork brought smart contracts to Cardano in September 2021. These were two key events in terms of adoption that kick-started the growth in accounts.
Staking was so attractive that within a year the number of users increased approximately 50 times from July 2020 to June 2021. The number of accounts with non-zero balances increased from 17,000 to 835,000.
In early 2022, the first DEX and other applications on Cardano began to launch. During 2022, the number of accounts grew by about 670,000. On average, about 1,800 new accounts were added daily. Last year can be considered the beginning of the bear market. During the 3 months of 2023, the number of accounts increased by about 68,000. That’s in the order of hundreds of new accounts a day. On average, around 800 new accounts are added daily.
There are currently approximately 2,240,000 accounts with non-zero balances on Cardano. It is difficult to estimate further developments. The ongoing bear market is having a negative effect on the interest in the blockchain industry and therefore on the number of users. On the other hand, DeFi on Cardano is literally in its infancy. This could have a positive effect on the further growth of the network effect.
Is it possible to overcome the network effect of current projects?
Do you find the growth in the number of accounts on Cardano fast or slow? It’s good to put the numbers in perspective with older projects. This will give us a relevant answer.
Bitcoin reached the 5M account mark between 2015 and 2016. It took more than 6 years to do so. Bitcoin was the first blockchain that forged the path of the blockchain industry. The growth of other projects will be easier. Note that the number of accounts is growing significantly faster in the bull market. In 2017, the number of Bitcoin accounts rose from roughly 10M to 25M. In the bear market, the number of accounts decreased by 5M and then grew slowly. By 2020, Bitcoin has reached 25M again. In the bull market in 2021, another 10M new accounts were added. Currently, Bitcoin has over 44M accounts with non-zero balances.
Do you think it is possible to overcome the network effect of Bitcoin? Yes, it is possible and Ethereum has succeeded in 2020.
Ethereum was launched in mid-2015. Ethereum reached the 5M account threshold between 2017 and 2018. It took approximately 3 years from launch. That’s only half the time it took Bitcoin. Between 2018 and 2021, i.e. during the bear market to the peak of the bull market, the number of accounts grew by about 40M and reached the 50M mark.
In 2020, Ethereum surpassed Bitcoin in the number of accounts. In Q2 2023, the number of accounts on Ethereum is expected to reach the 100M mark. Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin twice in this statistic. Note that the number of accounts in the case of Ethereum has been growing steadily and there has not been a significant decline as there was for Bitcoin in 2018.
In the bear market, from the beginning of 2022 until now, the number of accounts in the Bitcoin network has grown by roughly 4M. In the case of Ethereum, it’s about 30M over the same period. Ethereum is growing 7.5x faster than Bitcoin in terms of accounts. 8,800 new accounts are created daily on Bitcoin, while 66,000 are created on Ethereum. That’s a difference of orders of magnitude.
When can Cardano reach 10M accounts?
As we have already described, significant increases in users occur during bull markets. It is common for Bitcoin and Ethereum that the number of accounts slowly grew during bull markets, only to explode during bull markets. Cardano is well on his way to repeating similar success, as he meets this prerequisite.
At the start of the bull year in 2017, there were roughly 1M accounts on Ethereum. By the end of the year, the number was close to 5M. That’s roughly a 4-fold growth during the bull market. In the bullish year 2021, growth was already slower, roughly 1.5 to 2 times.
Cardano is now in a similar phase to Ethereum in 2017. The next bull market will be in 2025 (Bitcoin halving will be in 2024). That’s roughly a year and three quarters, during which the number of Cardano users will still grow. If the current growth trend in the number of accounts holds, it is very likely that there will be roughly 3M accounts in early 2025. This is a very good starting position and is significantly better than where Ethereum was in 2017.
In the last bull market in 2021, the number of accounts grew almost 9x, and recall that that was a year when there was no DeFi on Cardano yet.
There are many factors influencing the growth of accounts and this article does not aim to list and analyze them all. Let’s try to list at least some of them. The number of accounts may tend to grow faster if it is small (Ethereum in 2017, Cardano in 2021), say under 10M. Once the number of accounts is higher than the order of tens of millions, growth will be slower (Ethereum in 2021).
In our analysis, we use only on-chain data. We do not deal with second layers and accounts on….
For the full article, visit source:
https://cexplorer.io/article/the-number-of-ada-holders-grow-despite-the-bear-market
Spotlight for Community-built Tools
The Developer Portal was created to foster a home for developers who are dedicated to building tools and services on Cardano. The platform allows developers to not only collaborate on projects but also to showcase their works.
The Developer Portal aspires to become a credible source where users can search for tools to fit their needs.
Community projects already running on mainnet are encouraged to add their projects to the Developer Portal.
- blockfrost-crystal: A Crystal SDK for the Blockfrost.io API.
- cardano-kit-crystal: At toolkit for Crystal to ease development for the Cardano blockchain.
- Raw Cardano Explorer: Cardano Blockchain Explorer to show data in a simple and fast way.
Network insights
Many thanks, and greetings from the Community Team!
