In brief
- Cardano product manager Aparna Jue appeared on The Decrypt Daily podcast.
- She spoke about the recent launch of the blockchain’s major Shelley hard fork.
- Jue also shared details about the next big focus areas in Cardano development.
Cardano took a big step forward in late July with the release of Shelley, a hard fork designed to take the blockchain to the next level. Shelley, the culmination of five years of work, upgraded the network with features such as stake pools and delegations.
It also begins what Cardano Product Director Aparna Jue says is a handoff of the blockchain network, shifting from a centralized framework at the control of creators IOHK to a truly decentralized network.
“Shelly really brings to us a level of decentralization, where we're actually letting the world in to run the network,” Jue told host Matthew Aaron on Monday’s episode of The Decrypt Daily podcast. “We're doing that by slowly letting them create the blocks instead of us managing it 100%. It's going to be complete when the community manages it 100%.”
She explained that the initial centralized approach has allowed IOHK to ensure the robustness of the network and better address critical issues and edge cases that popped up along the way. That robust nature of the code and philosophies behind the network are part of what sets Cardano apart from other blockchains, she said.
“Our differentiation or value proposition really sits in the methodology in which we go about it. Everything… the point is, it's got to be robust,” she said. “Charles [Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder,] has said this until he’s blue in the face, but it really starts with that research. That's why we have a huge scientific community as a part of IOHK, a part of our company, is because [...] they prove out first mathematically and from a research angle before we even think to implement it in the product.”
While Jue is excited about continuing to lay the foundation for the Cardano, she said she’s most excited about “when you get out of the heads of just the development team” to allow the world to really start building on the blockchain. As for future development leading up to that point, Jue said that governance and smart contracts are the biggest upcoming focuses.
Tune into The Decrypt Daily for Jue’s full views on the launch of Cardano, the next steps ahead, and her surprising response when asked about what excites her most in crypto today.
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