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Cardano’s Allegra Hard Fork Scheduled for Next Week, Node Release 1.24.2 Successfully Deployed

Cardano has recently successfully deployed the node release of 1.24.2 to the Cardano mainnet, ahead of its hard fork, Allegra. The next Cardano protocol update, which includes the hard fork combinator (HFC) event Allegra, will take place on Dec. 16.

According to Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain development company behind Cardano, after extensive testing on its QA networks, node release 1.24.2 has been deployed on the Cardano mainnet. IOHK announced:

“This morning, after extensive testing on our QA networks, we’ve successfully deployed Node release 1.24.2 to the #Cardano mainnet. This release supports the next Cardano protocol update (‘token locking’ HFC event codenamed ‘Allegra’) planned for 16 December, so looking good.”

Sebastien Guillemot, the lead research and development engineer at Emurgo recently explained that the upcoming Allegra hard fork does not fundamentally change anything about how transactions are made. He added, “any translation that is valid right now for Shelley will be valid in Allegra.”

What is Cardano’s Allegra hard fork?

Cardano’s upcoming hard fork, Allegra, is a hard fork combinator (HFC) that is different from hard forks on other blockchains which allows the hard fork to be deployed before the hard fork happens. This upgrade is part of the next transition for the Cardano blockchain from the Shelley era to the Goguen era.

What it means for the end-user is that there would not be a time where the server would need to go down before the first upgrade, and they would not see any interruption at all. IOHK’s recent blog explained:

“To enable a smooth transition, Cardano automatically preserves the history of previous blocks. This allows the protocol to be upgraded without radical interference to the chain. The previous state does not vanish. Rather, it is extended to include new capabilities. Instead of splitting into two different chains, Cardano combines the original blocks that comply with the current block production rules with new blocks that comply with the new block production rules.”

The Allegra hard fork will introduce a token locking mechanism as part of Project Catalyst and Voltaire, the treasury system for Cardano. The treasury system would ensure the funding of the blockchain network indefinitely. As part of on-chain voting on Cardano, tokens must be locked up before voting can happen, to avoid attacks.

As Project Catalyst is expected to launch soon, Guillemot explained that the token locking mechanism is needed ahead of time.

ADA price predictions are high ahead of Allegra hard fork

As witnessed during the last time where the Cardano blockchain went through a hard fork, ADA’s price surged ahead of the Shelley update. As Cardano takes one step further towards becoming a fully decentralized blockchain, ADA’s price could benefit and see a rally.

ADA is currently trading at $0.145 according to CoinMarketCap and currently ranks the 8th by market capitalization. Coinswitch modestly predicts that by 2023 ADA coins will reach the $2 dollar mark.

What is Cardano’s Mary hard fork?

Cardano’s Mary hard fork adds a new concept of multi-asset support. Cardano aims to have multiple assets on the blockchain to enable any user to create their own asset. Guillemot explains that non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or assets on other blockchains could be added to the network. All the assets created on the blockchain network would be treated “almost as the same way as ADA.”

Guillemot further explained that the other assets could be sent in the same transaction with ADA, however, every transaction on Cardano needs to contain ADA, fees would be paid in ADA, and delegation rewards would only be paid in ADA.

The Mary hard fork is expected in Q1 of 2021.

ADA Price Surges to $0.50 as Cardano Inches Closer to DeFi with Mary Hard Fork

The ADA token price is up 40% this week as the Cardano network inches closer to DeFi following the blockchain’s successful Mary hard fork upgrade. Where to next for ADA’s price?

Cardano has been gaining huge traction in the crypto sphere as it inches closer to launching smart contracts on its blockchain to properly enter the DeFi space the ADA price has risen 15% in the last 24 hours and is currently priced at around $0.50 following.

Cardano’s native token ADA is currently ranked sixth by market cap with $15.66B with a 24-hour trading volume of $4.5 billion.

With new upgrades to Cardano’s blockchain imminent and the network’s entry into DeFi, what’s in store for ADA’s price?

Mary Hard Fork Complete

Mary is one of two hard forks planned for Cardano’s upgrade from Shelley to Goguen. The hard fork was successfully executed on February 3rd at 20:00 UTC and is set to finally bring native asset support to Cardano, a move that will allow the blockchain to properly support decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized applications (Dapps).

DeFi and Dapps are the markets that Ethereum and rival smart-contract blockchains like Cardano are targeting. In its current state, the DeFi space is intrinsically linked with Ethereum, with vast majority of DeFi protocols running on its blockchain.

The Mary hard fork is a major upgrade that unlocks a whole new world of opportunities both to the Cardano community and the businesses and institutions using the blockchain. This will effectively transform the Cardano testnet into a truly multi-asset network, enabling users to issue and distribute their own tokens on the Cardano blockchain.

By March, the same upgrade will roll out to the Cardano mainnet, unlocking the blockchain’s smart contract functionality.

ADA Price Analysis

The concept of DeFi on Cardano sounds extremely promising in theory to many in the community who believe that it can compete with Ethereum as a platform for DeFi protocols. However, unlike other decentralized platforms like Ethereum and Polkadot, any real adoption is still yet to take place on Cardano but ADA’s price continues to surge on speculation.

Source: TradingView ADA/USD

From the ADA price trend graph, the most recent closing price was above the 20-day moving average (MA). The daily line starting from February 2nd has also closed above the 9-day MA and ADA’s price appears to be moving in an ascending channel. ADA should find selling pressure around $0.55 and traders will need to wait to see if its volume can break above the trend line—if the pressure line is broken, it should see Cardano’s token price rise even faster. At the same time, pay close attention to the support line of the lower channel, if ADA falls below this line the price will develop a downward trend, with its next major support at $0.35. Currently $0.1644 remains ADA’s strongest support level.

Source: TradingView ADA/USD

The ADA price is currently $0.494 and is testing the $0.50 level resistance. As seen from the MACD chart that the MACD line (Blue) and the Signal line (yellow) have formed a golden cross and are above the zero axis. The opening range of the two lines has gradually expanded and the transaction volume has gradually increased. This is a short-term bull market signal and we expect ADA to continue rising to close out the next 4-hour candle above $0.50.

Four Reasons Why Cardano’s ADA Price is Surging

Cardano’s cryptocurrency ADA has been on a tear this month, doubling in price since the start of February and now trading at 0.76 according to CoinMarketCap—here are four reasons why the ADA price is surging.

Smart contract functionality imminent, a move to community control, new government deals in Africa, and a raging crypto bull market are four reasons why Cardano’s native cryptocurrency ADA has increased over 100% since the start of February.

While the entire Altcoin market steadily rises it’s easy to overlook Cardano’s ADA as being another cryptocurrency being boosted by market FOMO and the overwhleming bullish sentiment—and while it is certainly one reason, the ADA price rally is mostly fueled by the major developments inside IOHK and a number of hugely important releases planned for this year.

Cardano’s Goguen Era is nearly Upon Us

Mary is one of two hard forks planned for Cardano’s upgrade from Shelley to Goguen. The hard fork was successfully executed on February 3rd at 20:00 UTC and is set to finally bring native asset support to Cardano, a move that will allow the blockchain to properly support decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized applications (Dapps).

By March, the same upgrade will roll out to the Cardano mainnet, unlocking the blockchain’s smart contract functionality.

The market reacted strongly to the upgrade, as Cardano is one of the few, if not the only blockchain platforms, that handles tokenization natively. The Cardano design is also touted as superior to Ethereum’ as it removes a layer of complexity as its native tokens will be able to transact directly on the blockchain the same way that ADA does. Ethereum’s native tokens must leverage smart contracts on top of the network’s base layer.

Handing Control to the Community

IOHK, the company behind Cardano, is set to give up all control over block production on the network on March 31st—currently 100% of the blocks on the Cardano network are produced by IOHK.

From March 31st the Cardano network will become fully community-controlled which means that the blockchain will become completely decentralized and fulfill the promise of blockchain and intermediary free financial processes. The move towards true decentralization has also been a major factor instilling confidence in Cardano’s supporters and is no doubt an attraction to new users and a factor that is seeing ADA reach for its all-time highs.

IOHK Bringing ADA to Africa

Charles Hoskinson, the CEO of IOHK, revealed late last year that the company was working on a number of projects involving Cardano aimed exclusively at Africa.

In a recent interview with the Proof of Africa, IOHK’s director of African Operations John O’Connor revealed that the company was in the final stages of a large government contract in Africa. When launched, the project could onboard millions of new users onto the Cardano platform and become one of the largest real-world implementations of blockchain technology.

While details are set to be release at the end of the month—O’Connor revealed that the African project should realistically onboard 100 million users onto its platform within the next couple of years.

Another bullish signal for Cardano advocates, which is helping ADA rally higher.

ADA Price Analysis

Source: ADA/USD TradingView

According to the 4-hour price candlestick chart, it can be seen that the ADA price is currently in an ascending channel, and the latest 4-hour candlestick chart prices have closed above 9-day Moving Average and the exponential moving average ribbon. A series of exponential moving averages of different lengths present a long arrangement. it helps confirm a rising price trend.

From the candlestick chart, it can be seen that a Doji Candlestick pattern was closed in the short-term downward trend (wave 4) at 8 AM and 12 AM on February 9th, indicating that the trend would reverse and touch the lower support line of the ascending channel—where it bounced immediately showing the strong buying power in the market. As can be seen from the figure, the green candlestick was received afterward, and the trading volume continued to expand, indicating that the fifth wave of upward price movement was confirmed.

According to the Elliott Wave Principle, as shown in the figure, we find that highs continue to create higher highs, and lows continue to close higher. ADA is currently in the upward channel of the fifth wave, which will create a short-term price peak higher than $0.85. Investors need to pay attention to the candlestick pattern especially when it is closer to the pressure line of the upper upward channel. If the trend changes, there will be a short-term 3-wave (wave A; wave B; wave C) correction.

Source: ADA/USD TradingView

Looking at the MACD chart—the MACD line(blue) and the signal line(yellow) have merged together and are above the zero axes. And the transaction volume (red) has gradually decreased, which indicates in the following 4 hours, there is a huge possibility for forming a golden cross. This is a short-term bull market phenomenon.

Based on the four reasons above and the technical analysis of Cardano’s cryptocurrency, we believe ADA will continue to rise and close above $0.80 today with further price gains in the days to come.