I am a researcher by nature. I am not a computer developer, I do not have the education to analyze computer codes, but I do have the logic, to be able to understand the ecosystem as a whole.
Decentralization is, for me, essential today as a lifestyle, having learned this in the crypto industry. By this I mean that I am decentralized, I do not respond to any interest. I can afford criticism.
I am making this introduction because of what I am going to say, which is my opinion, and I will do it objectively, as always.
Do not accuse me of FUD or similar, because it is not the idea, but I pretend that we all think, even more so my readers.
Today Cardano has a very good performance for the number of transactions it handles, and that have increased considerably after the HF Mary, in March, by the NFTs.
From time to time we see when there are airdrops, how the network becomes congested and slows down, not to mention Yoroi with its servers, (but that issue is not a problem with the blockchain, but with Emurgo).
In that sense, the blockchain has a kind of mempool (similar to Bitcoin) where it leaves unprocessed transactions on the waiting list. Each Bitcoin block is 10 minutes on average and Cardano is only 20 seconds, so the mempool is smaller out of necessity. When this type of congestion occurs (so far airdrops) many transactions are rejected and must be processed again, this does not imply loss of funds, but time for the user.
Imagine the network traffic that will come when all the number of platforms that are being developed are operated. Today only those of NFT are active, since they do not need smart contracts.
I leave this link with the ecosystem of the most important developments (and they are not all!): CardanoCube.
Let’s not even talk about the “absorption” that it will make on the Ethereum ecosystem, with respect to the ERC20 tokens, from the ERC20-Converter.
That said, you should know that the vast majority of developments are waiting for the PAB, Plutus Application Backend, (some like Sundaeswap have said they will do without the PAB), which is a platform to lighten the burden on the developer, providing this built-in functionality to the smart contract developers. The service intermediates between the Plutus applications, the node, the wallet and the users. The PAB also helps applications track status and other information in the chain for use by SCs.
I leave you an article about PAB: https://adapulse.io/the-architecture-powering-cardano-and-its-future-applications/
There is no release date for the PAB, although there are already two pre-releases: https://github.com/input-output-hk/plutus/releases .
IOHK said they would launch with the HF Alonzo and it didn’t happen. All good, we know that they are going slowly, steadily and surely, I prefer it that way.
Then the ERC20-Converter theme, the same, no date and they said it would be for the HF.
Finally, HYDRA, necessary and (sufficient) for climbing in 2nd layer and off-chain. It will be available no earlier than 6 months.
https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2021/09/17/hydra-cardano-s-solution-for-ultimate-scalability/
When they launch the PAB and the ERC20-Converter, the growth in network traffic would be enormous, because a large number of developments will come, both their own, native to Cardano, and those of Ethereum.
Now, I’ll be the devil’s lawyer:
Is Cardano Prepared to Support Your Operation Growth? No.
Today Cardano operates at 20–30% of its block capacity, see: https://pool.pm (see 1H / 24H LOAD)
If the traffic grew, say, 5 times (not much considering the potential that is coming), the network would saturate.
Why aren’t the PAB and ERC20-Converter ready yet? If these two tools were already available, but without Hydra, the blockchain would be slow, congested, and impact higher network fee costs, something that we criticize for Ethereum .
Time will tell us.
Perhaps a strategy could be, in my opinion, to launch the PAB and not the ERC20-Converter, so that growth is controlled. That is, stay with the same for now, and the adoption of Solidity Tokens (Ethereum), would be pending until the launch of Hydra.
My intention is constructive criticism, to help us think to evolve. Cardano has great potential, great design, and a team of excellence that builds it, leading its way today, necessary for its first steps, and until the Voltaire era of governance gives democratic decisions to the community.
I’m just a freedom maximalist, and decentralization is my navigational compass.
