Welcome to the Cardano Newsletter!
Published by the Cardano community team every two weeks, this newsletter will provide you with news, updates and events about the project!
Charles Hoskinson’s Latest Surprise AMA from Dubai - 21 November 2019
On 21 November Charles Hoskinson sat down for a surprise AMA during his time in Dubai. There he discussed the upcoming incentivized testnet snapshot as well as Cardano plans for 2020. If you would like to see the notes from his previous update on 12 November, click here.
SUMMARY
- The balance check snapshot has been successful and major bugs have been identified and fixed.
- The Incentivized Testnet snapshot will likely occur before the end of November. An announcement of the official date should be expected either Friday of this week or Monday of next.
- A workshop will be held in Colorado in the beginning of December to lay out the Cardano roadmap for 2020.
- Charles is meeting with the Cardano Foundation to address the formation of a Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) committee.
- New technologies like recursive snarks and Halo are currently being studied.
During Charles’ stay in Dubai, he also took the time to answer questions and address community members at a locally organized, impromptu Cardano Community meetup. Watch the video below.
Upcoming Shelley Incentivized Testnet Main Snapshot: What to Expect?
Over the past few months, we have been rolling out our Shelley testnet. You may have been following our reports about progress on the self-node and networked phases. Now, we are heading into the third and final phase before Shelley goes live on mainnet: an Incentivized Testnet that all ada holders can join to earn real rewards.
This marks a significant milestone in the progress of the Shelley testnet, and in Cardano’s development. During this phase, ada holders will be able to earn real rewards from delegating their stake on the Incentivized Testnet. At the end of the program, they will be able to transfer those rewards back to their mainnet wallet. Rewards will also be available for those operating a stake pool on the Incentivized Testnet.
The Incentivized Testnet is the beginning of Shelley’s rollout, which will culminate in the release of the codebase to the mainnet early next year and, with that, the realization of a secure, decentralized proof-of-stake (PoS) network. Exciting, unprecedented times. For the latest news on what’s coming up next, sign up for updates here.
*To those that have not been able to follow all the recent developments, we highly encourage you to read IOHK’s latest detailed blog post below.
Main Snapshot: what to expect and look out for?
After the practice run of the balance check, we are now getting ready for the main UTXO snapshot, which will be happening today on November 29th, 12:00 (noon) UTC time. We have been doing a number of fixes and optimizations behind the scenes (as well as working on new versions of the testnet wallet) so that we can proceed with the main UTXO Balance snapshot. This snapshot will represent the version of the Cardano blockchain that will be used during the Shelley Incentivized Testnet. Once this snapshot has been taken, there will be a period of additional network testing and optimization. This will also be the time for stakepool operators to get up and running and to do their own tests. Once our engineers are happy with everything, we’ll then start rolling out further wallet functionality, including staking. You’ll be able to earn real ada rewards as part of the testnet activity. These rewards will be remunerable once the Shelley mainnet is live. More details on the mechanics of this at a later stage
Watch Tim Harrison’s latest video about the upcoming final snapshot.
Three additional things to pay extra attention to:
- It is important to note that the amount of ada you are holding in your Daedalus or Yoroi wallet at the time of the main UTXO snapshot (targeted for the end of this month) is the amount that can be used for staking and delegation on the testnet. You must ensure you have access to your seed words. You will need these and recover your balance details within a special Rewards wallet that has been created for the Shelley testnet.
- Please beware of anyone claiming you need to send your ada to them for staking or delegation. This is not the case! You do NOT need to send them anything.
- Also, you do NOT need and MUST NOT send your mainnet ada (the ada in your regular wallet) to the testnet or a testnet address: this is not possible and if tried, will most likely lead to loss of funds.
*You can find a list of supported wallets in the blog post above.
The Cardano Foundation’s Gianna and Hinrich Attend and Speak at Conference in Mauritius.
On 21-22 November, Hinrich Pfeifer, General Secretary at the Cardano Foundation, and Gianna Abegg, Legal Counsel, joined the Building Blockchain Bridges conference in Mauritius.
At the event, Hinrich Pfeifer joined two panels to discuss blockchain policies and innovative technologies and their uses in Switzerland and the African continent. Gianna participated in the discussion about blockchain in financial services.
Cardano Foundation to Work with African Nations to Develop Blockchain Governance
PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS, 21 NOVEMBER 2019. The Cardano Foundation expands its reach to 54 countries on the African continent to build blockchain governance to future-proof the region’s sustainable growth and development. One of the world’s leading not-for-profit blockchain organizations helps law-making bodies and policymakers in Europe and Asia, and now in Africa, to shape legislation and commercial standards – in line with one of the Cardano Foundation’s missions.
IOHK: Shelley Testnet - Your weekly rollout rollup - Week 22
IOHK provides Shelley Testnet Newsletter updates every Friday. Please check out the updates on our Forum. And for the very latest technical updates you can follow all the commits and pull requests in the community GitHub.
If you are not already part of the conversation, you will find a lot of activity over at the stake pool Best Practice Telegram.
EMURGO’s Yoroi Wallet Supports the Cardano Incentivized Testnet Balance Check!
Another step towards the release of Shelley! As you may recall, EMURGO and the Cardano ecosystem has been focused on the rollout of the Cardano Incentivized Testnet - the beginning of the launch of the Shelley era which will bring full decentralization & staking features to Cardano. In the incentivized testnet, ADA holders will be able to delegate their ADA stake or run a staking pool with real ADA rewards.
EMURGO Blog: The Unrivaled Safety of Cardano Smart Contracts
With the future release of Goguen, Cardano - the first, third-generation blockchain to emerge from a scientific & peer-reviewed philosophy - will introduce smart contracts to the main Cardano blockchain. Specifically, developers will be able to write smart contracts for Cardano using Plutus.
Ambassador Stories: Georg & Kornel
It’s been a while, but here is a new Cardano Ambassador Story! In this 13th Journal we will highlight: Georg, German speaking channel moderator & Kornel, Polish translator, who have both recently joined.
From now on we will periodically publish the stories whenever new Ambassadors join our ranks! Enjoy!
Cardano Community Meetups
Upcoming Meetups
RSVP to these events!
7 Dec 2019 Cardano Meetup & Discussion in Tokyo, Japan, by Hideki Takeshi
10 Dec 2019 DC Cardano Discussion Washington DC, USA by Isaac and Dave Dio
16 Dec 2019【TEAMZ共催】中国におけるブロックチェーン業界の展望を理解する Tokyo, Japan with Emurgo
View all Cardano Community groups here
Nothing in your area ?
See if a group already exists on our meetup.com page and connect with the local organizer!
Stay safe! We, or any of the Cardano affiliated organizations/personnel, will never ask you to send us Ada or any other asset, nor will we ask for your password or pass phrases. Official partnerships/affiliations will always be announced through official channels. Use caution and do your own research before transferring funds.
More at 'How to Stay Safe Online’.
To receive the newsletter straight to your inbox, subscribe on our website! Go to cardano.org , scroll to the bottom, and fill in the subscription form. It’s that easy!