The Cardano smart contract era is approaching, soon the Plutus platform that will host it will be integrated into the mainnet. With this in mind, there are many changes and features that need to be introduced in the network.
Cardano inventor Charles Hoskinson kept the community informed of the progress made during the testing phase of the smart contract platform. On his Twitter account, Hoskinson recently celebrated an achievement in one of the project’s key areas, interoperability.
Blockchain-based company dcSpark announced that it is developing a “novel sidechain project called Milkomeda”. This interoperable solution will “empower” developers and users with Ethereum Virtual Machine-based sidechains.
This means that Cardano and other blockchains can take Ethereum developers on board. You will have the opportunity to migrate your projects via these sidechains and their alternative virtual machines connected to Cardano and other L1 mainnets. An official post claimed:
(…) for Cardano, Milkomeda enables the use of sidechains that are directly connected to the mainchain and use wADA (wrapped ADA) as an asset to pay transaction fees.
Ethereum Smart Contracts on Cardano! I am happy to see someone come into this pond https://t.co/DH9D1v4ahh
– Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 25, 2021
The company aims to encourage users to try out a new ecosystem and will use “new technologies,” the official posts claim, such as wrapped smart contracts. This means that users and developers can use Cardano and other networks as “coordination layers”.
A smart contract can now be executed on the Milkomeda sidechain without any more complex procedures. The dcSpark team claimed that this mechanism would “bring new UX to the table” for end users.
As an example, they said that developers can execute a smart contract on the Milkomeda sidechain directly from the Cardano mainnet. This eliminates the need for additional platforms or tools such as wallets. Robert Kornacki, Chief Strategy Officer at dc Spark said:
We believe that providing such flexibility and performance to end users thanks to Milkomeda will set a new standard for some of the most promising blockchains with smart contracts and their ecosystems in general.
From Cardano to a multichain ecosystem
The team highlighted that Milkomeda will first be implemented on Cardano under the name M1. This event creates the first sidechain of this network.
It will use wADA as a base asset with existing Cardano Stakepool validators that also operate the Milkomeda validators. Nico Arqueros, CEO of dcSpark, said:
With the first introduction of the protocol and the M1 sidechain, we are pleased to be part of the bootstrapping era of the Cardano sidechain as the first step for Milkomeda. Additionally, we are excited to be at the forefront of advancing and realizing the vision of multi-VM blockchain ecosystems by bringing a new breakthrough technology to the market, packaged smart contracts.
Arqueros added that the company believes in a future where all L1 blockchains have a layer of coordination to strengthen a “diverse ecosystem” with multiple virtual machines. In the future, Solana, Cardano, and many more blockchains could have a bridge supported by their own community.
Stressed that interoperability is key to increasing blockchain adoption, Hoskinson added:
(…) we do not believe that there will be “a blockchain that rules them all”, we value the cooperation. When it comes to interoperability and scalability, sidechains are an integral part of our vision for Cardano.
At the time of writing, ADA is trading at $ 2.75 with a gain of 2.1% on the daily chart.
ADA on a rally in the daily chart. Source: ADAUSDT Tradingview
