Cardano, a smart contracts platform and Ethereum competitor, is transitioning and preparing for Voltaire after completing Basho. In the final phase, developers focused on scaling and improving performance.

A key part of this transition will be the full activation of the Chang hard fork. According to CardanoscanAs of August 19, only 33% of all stake pool operators (SPOs) were ready, while 14% of all supporting exchanges were ready. finished.

Once all SPOs update their nodes and the network moves to Voltaire, there will be multiple benefits. One of them is that Cardano will adopt a decentralized governance model.

Will Cardano Lead the ZK Scaling Race After Chang?

Additionally, an observer shared insights from Philip DiSarro, the founder of Anastasia Labs, said the network would lead the zero-knowledge (ZK) scaling race. In the podcast, DiSarro argues that Chang will give Cardano a significant advantage, giving the platform a leg up in the current “scaling war.”

This lead will be largely due to the additions that the Chang hard fork brings to Cardano. After the hard fork, Cardano will integrate Plutus v2, allowing developers to create and launch smart contracts more efficiently.

The programming language also handles complete computations, which is the core of ZK proofs. Furthermore, after the update, functions will be ready to enable off-chain computations, which is directly vital for ZK rollups.

For this reason, the observer is confident that Cardano, after Chang, will be unique and will not be “copied” by anyone. This advantage, the observer continued, gives the network a “huge, unique selling point” with regard to ZK scaling.

Ethereum Leads Layer-2, But Transaction Determinism Is Crucial

Ethereum scales primarily through optimistic rollups, where transactions are bundled and approved offline. The problem with this model is that centralized systems act as intermediaries, diluting the true benefits of approving transactions on-chain.

Some of these centralized systems include a sequencer for ordering transactions. There is also a failsafe system to ensure that all posted transactions are valid.

Through Chang, Cardano can use ZK scaling as their primary way to improve transaction processing. With this choice, off-chain transactions via rollups, similar to Ethereum, will be more effective and decentralized as the platform supports determinism.

The developers’ emphasis on It means that all transaction inputs will always produce the same outputs, a feature that suits ZK scaling. Because the same inputs produce the same outputs, transaction outcomes are highly predictable.

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Main image from Flickr, chart from TradingView