The update to the Cardano (ADA) network in September 2021, which included the addition of smart contract functionality, has seen tremendous growth, enhancing the platform’s ability to compete with its larger competitor Ethereum in a number of ways.
Notably, the number of smart contracts based on Plutus, a Cardano-based smart contracts platform, has reached a milestone of 996 as of January 25, putting it only four smart contracts short of the 1,000 mark.
The graph depicts real Plutus-based smart contracts running on the Cardano blockchain, which were deployed as part of the smart upgrade enabled by the September Alonzo upgrade hard fork event.
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In particular, the upgrade meant that Cardano could provide a decentralized finance (DeFi) application development platform as well as offer programmability to the community of developers.
ADA rising in popularity with developers
Previously, Finbold reported that the number of smart contracts on the Cardano platform was 888 in December; the latest achievement underlines that Plutus has been rising in popularity among developers since the September upgrade.
It is worth emphasizing that, despite the fact that Cardano has made several upgrades to the network, the addition of smart contracts was a watershed moment in the ecosystem.
However, the adoption of Cardano by developers and the number of decentralized applications (dApps) that are connected to the Cardano network are the most important factors determining its success.
During the course of the development, Cardano has stated that users and developers should be prepared for bumps on the road, particularly in the early phases. As a result, we recently highlighted 11 ways Cardano is planning to scale in 2022.
Cardano average blockchain loads hits all-time high
Elsewhere, on January 22, 2022, the Cardano network’s average blockchain load hit an all-time high of 94.49% due to its recent development.
The inclusion of smart contract functionality has resulted in an increase in activity on the network, as seen by an increase in a number of metrics, as previously stated.
Owing to this level of scalability, Cardano recorded this month both higher volume and over 500 times cheaper fees than Ethereum when the adjusted volume was taken into consideration.
By press time, the ADA token was trading at $1.03, up 1.8% in the last 24 hours, although Cardano has not been spared from the widespread crypto market correction down 31.9% in the last week.
