On February 21, 2020, Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, announced on twitter that the Ouroboros Byzantine Fault Tolerance (OBFT) hard fork has been successfully implemented in preperation for the shelley launch.

This heralds a new era for Cardano (ADA) and is the first step in moving the network’s Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol, also called “Ouroboros,” from the Byron phase to the Shelley phase.

The OBFT fork was deployed on the federated Byron mainnet, and now represents an evolution of the original Ouroboros Classic protocol that allows ADA to move closer to flipping the switch on centralization.

It is important to note that this OBFT hard fork is just one of several network upgrades planned to happen before the start of the Shelley era. While an exact timeline remains unclear, these upgrades are expected to be shipped in around two months.

The Shelley mainnet, which will be powered by the Ouroboros Genesis protocol, is expected to turn Cardano into the most decentralized blockchain project. It will allow the community to pick their own validators via staking.

Meanwhile, the Binance exchange has announced it will support the upcoming ADA network upgrade. Deposits and withdrawals of ADA will be suspended on the platform starting from 2020/02/20, 4:00 PM (UTC).

Recap of Latest Cardano Network Upgrade

Cardano (ADA) Ouroboros Byzantine Fault Tolerance (OBFT) hard fork is a technological update expected to introduce a new consensus algorithm that is based on BTF. Now that the upgrade has been successfully implemented, a new-fangled consensus has set in automatically.

This remarkable hard fork process is not meant to create a new digital currency but rather deployed to be the first step towards the Shelley phase.

This is a progressive sign for ADA holders as the Shelley era will present new use-cases, specifically betting, for non-speculative tokens and payments. With Shelley, Cardano is entering the crowded race of the forthcoming Grade 1 PoS networks to attract attention from potential manufacturers.

That said, Cardano will not support smart contracts until the next phase, known as the Goguen era, which is expected to launch in 2020.

ADA Shelley Mainnet to Launch Soon

The OBFT hard fork consists of 2 core modules: the Cardano node and the Cardano explorer backend along with a new web API. Both technologies ensure that Cardano’s architecture is scalable, agile, and interoperable. Among other things, the codebase was converted from a monolithic to a modular node.

Regarding a launch date of Shelley in the mainnet, Hoskinson recently stated that there is no concrete date yet, but mentioned that he would like to launch it in spring or summer, and the earlier, the better.

