In a recent development within the blockchain industry, Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Cardano, has addressed and clarified misconceptions regarding the halting of their Hydra Layer-2 scaling project. On March 18, through a Twitter post, the CEO of IOHK firmly stated that the project remains active, countering claims of its abandonment as baseless fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).
Hydra: Enhancing Cardano’s Capabilities
Hydra, introduced in May 2023, is pivotal to enhancing the Cardano blockchain’s transaction capacity and minimizing operational costs. Considered a significant aspect of Cardano’s growth strategy, Hydra aligns with the Basho phase, which focuses on network scaling. Despite this, a video by The Cryptoviser suggested Cardano’s shift away from Hydra, citing Hoskinson’s March 13 announcement regarding Hyperledger Firefly’s integration. However, Hoskinson has retorted with a tweet emphasizing the continued productivity and upcoming protocol improvement publications.
Defending Cardano’s Scaling Solution
The Cardano community has previously witnessed Hoskinson defend Hydra amid skepticism. In October, he highlighted the protocol’s scaling capabilities and dispelled doubts regarding network efficiency. Hoskinson clarified that Cardano’s model is based on transactions per block rather than per second, and noted Hydra’s evolution towards creating middleware for decentralized applications. More recently, on March 18th, he confronted a surge of FUD tied to partnerships and the scaling roadmap.
DefiLlama’s data reveals that despite a peak in Cardano’s total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance at $520 million on March 14th, the network still trails behind giants like Ethereum, Tron, BNB Smart Chain, and Solana, which boast a TVL of $72 billion. Nevertheless, Cardano’s advancements suggest a robust commitment to innovation and growth within the blockchain space.