Cardano, often criticized for the delays in rolling out features and network upgrades, takes pride in its deliberate pace. According to Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard, the network is "boring" due to its academic approach. He emphasized the platform's commitment to academic peer-reviewed papers, sharing them globally. Gregaard mentioned being proud of the research conducted by Cardano over the years, contributing to the resilience and adaptability of blockchains worldwide. He acknowledged the importance of adopting core principles for the planet and humanity, making Cardano an influential and steadfast project.
The CEO highlighted Cardano's status as one of the oldest projects, emphasizing its substantial presence on GitHub and a remarkable record of not experiencing downtime in over 2,000 days. Despite being perceived as "boring," Gregaard suggested that such stability is beneficial, especially given the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, which requires a reliable source of computable data. He acknowledged the positive impact of Cardano's major updates, including the Layer 2 scalability solution Hydra and the stake-based multi-signature protocol Mithril, contributing to the network's growth.
Cardano's recent achievements include a 198% year-to-date increase in total value locked (TVL) during the third quarter of 2023. While decentralized finance (DeFi) activity remained flat, the network moved up from the 34th to the 15th rank among all censored networks in TVL. Gregaard mentioned that expectations for on-chain governance in Cardano's upcoming era, Voltaire, are high, and they aim to learn from other networks like MakerDAO. Workshops will be hosted to involve the community in verifying, confirming, and contributing to the constitutional document, aligning with Cardano Improvement Proposal 1694 (CIP-1694).
Despite controversies surrounding crypto tribalism, Gregaard sees the broad Cardano community as an advantage, covering all infrastructure layers, including the value capture layer. He noted the addition of over 200,000 new non-custodial wallets during the bear market. Gregaard acknowledged that blockchain's impact on the world order and society is growing, emphasizing the importance of having a non-profit entity like the Cardano Foundation. He shared Cardano's path toward a stable network, involving hard forks and the enactment of CIP-1694, predicting the adoption of Cardano by nation-states in financial markets, international trade, and voting, as the network application landscape matures.
