In this blog, we will be reading about Cardano and the Cardano smart contracts. This blog shall also provide insights about why a business should hire Cardano developers.
Ever since Cardano (ADA) updated its network in September 2021, Cardano has been better than ever. The blockchain platform has now received the capability of creating smart contracts. The upgrade was codenamed, Cardano Alonzo. This update brought Cardano one step closer to truly becoming the so-called “Ethereum Killer.”
Right from its launch, the Cardano blockchain has been tagged as the “Ethereum Killer”. This is because of the premise that it improves the Ethereum infrastructure. Cardano comes with improvements like lower fees, higher scalability, and better transaction speed. Now, Cardano has come in direct competition with Ethereum by launching its smart contract capability,
In this blog, I will mention what the Cardano smart contracts consist of. I will also talk about the programming languages they use. But first, let us compare Cardano with the platform enterprises have traditionally used to create and deploy smart contracts. Because traditionally most top businesses used Ethereum for creating and deploying smart contracts.
Cardano & Its Specialities
The foundation and creation of Cardano is aimed at being better than Ethereum. Cardano is a public blockchain platform. Cardano is a decentralized open-source and public blockchain platform. It can facilitate peer-to-peer transactions with ADA i.e. its internal cryptocurrency. It was important for Cordano to adopt some of the strong points that Ethereum comes with, in order to be better than Ethereum.
Approach
Compared to other blockchain platforms, Cardano uses a scientific peer-reviewed process. This process is used before releasing any new update, product, or service and gives the developers confidence. So that when the developers create smart contracts on Cardano, they will be backed by documentation and industry-wide validation from other computer scientists and developers.
Cardano use cases draw inspiration from Ethereum and act as its upgraded version, let us get down to the details of Cardano smart contracts, such as – what are Cardano ADA smart contracts, how to create Cardano smart contracts, and the Cardano programming language.
Consensus
Cardano blockchain uses Ouroboros which is a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. This mechanism decides how the new transactions will be agreed upon and added to the blockchain. Here, the users don’t mine tokens. The users rather follow a block-validation process by staking the native token. This is something that makes blockchain more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable.
Architecture
The network is bi-layer, that is it is divided into two layers. The first layer is CSL (Cardano Settlement Layer). This layer is used for ADA transfers. The second layer is CCL (Cardano Computation Layer) used for creating ADA smart contracts. This separates or divides activities-wise. This makes running operations on both layers more efficient. On the contrary, Ethereum handled both smart contract and ETH transactions on the same layer, leading to higher fees and congestion.
What are Cardano smart contracts?
Cardano’s smart contracts or ADA’s smart contracts function similarly to the Ethereum blockchain. They act as virtual agreements that are executed between two or more parties. The outputs are only executed once the prerequisite conditions are met. The conditions & outputs sit on the Cardano ADA smart contracts.
The benefits of the Cardano blockchain are mentioned below. These benefits can also act as reasons why one should choose to create smart contracts. The benefits range from the absence of middlemen for maintaining contracts.
When someone creates a smart contract, they lay on a decentralized network, meaning they are free from tampering. The execution of smart contracts is a lot faster as compared to real-world contracts. And with the data stored on a decentralized network, you can be assured that they are stored permanently, along with their backups.
Cardano Programming Languages
Now to build these highly efficient smart contracts, there are mainly the following four Cardano programming languages that come into play. These Cardano programming languages are mentioned below.
Haskell
The Cardano blockchain is built using a functional programming language called ‘Haskell’. Haskell is the basis for Plutus, Cardano’s smart contract programming language, and it also powers Marlowe, our domain-specific language for financial smart contracts. Haskell is well-suited to write code that is robust and correct, particularly in conjunction with formal methods.
Plutus
It is a purpose-driven smart contract development platform. It is powered by modern language research that provides a full-stack programming environment on the basis of Haskell, a leading functional language. Plutus comprises elements that run on the blockchain and some elements that run on the user’s machine.
Glow
It is a new domain-specific language for creating decentralized applications on the blockchain. With the language, the developers can code secured apps ensuring that the smart contracts operate safely in the adversarial environment.
Marlowe
It is a domain-specific language used to create smart contracts visually and through traditional codes. The Marlowe language has been designed to be embedded in both Haskell and JavaScript, offering the editors a choice in preference and skillset.
Where are Cardano smart contracts used?
Cardano ADA smart contracts find their use cases across a wide range of industries. Industries like finance, gaming, real estate, and legal, all utilize Smart Contracts. Let us understand smart contracts on a deeper level.
Legal Industry
Cardano-based legal contracts can be executed through blockchain automatically. This is making the processes quicker to execute. Moreover, the smart contacts even come with a guaranteed 100% security. Thus, at the back of low execution risk and with fewer intermediaries.
Automated Mortgages
Smart contracts make it easy. As with Smart Contracts, mortgages get automated. While making the real estate process easy for the buyers and owners. To benefit from this, the Cardano smart contracts must be coded according to the mortgage agreements so that the processes can be executed automatically.
Goods & Payments
Cardano smart contract helps with things like international goods transfer as well as payment initiations through the use of a Letter of Credit. It improves the liquidity of the financial assets but also improves the financial efficiency across multiple stakeholders.
Conclusion
So, we saw many uses and benefits that come attached with the adoption of Cardano for creating smart contracts. What makes this platform great is that it directly answers all the shortcomings of Ethereum. Cordano even learns from the blockchain network. Although today 300 are contracts being made on Cardano, this number is only going to increase over time. Meaning that the time to enter the landscape for a blockchain entrepreneur through Cardano is now.
Reach out to us and get in touch with our team of blockchain developers. We will help you to initiate your smart contracts journey.
I hope this blog brings clarity about Cardano and Cardano Smart Contracts. Our company Copperchips also assists in creating Cardano smart contracts that your business can benefit from. So, if you have a project in mind that requires Cardano smart contracts then we can assist you in exploring and bringing it to realization.
