Cardano is taking these steps to ensure exchanges are ‘Alonzo-ready’

It is well-known that the much-awaited Alonzo upgrade will see Cardano integrating smart contract capabilities onto the network. While there is some way to go before its mainnet launch, a recent development has invited much enthusiasm. According to recent updates shared by IOHK, many exchanges are already readying themselves for the much-anticipated hard fork event.

A recent Twitter thread by IOHK revealed that six exchanges are already actively engaging with the Cardano Foundation for smart contract integration. The company further expects these numbers to keep growing as the week progresses and the mainnet launch draws nearer. This is because the network wants all the exchanges to be Alonzo-ready before the upgrade is deployed.

IOHK’s post also added that since Alonzo Purple’s network launch earlier this month, over 250 participants have been onboarded.

The development team also had good news to share about the smart contract’s functionalities. Plutus, which is Cardano’s smart contract programming language based on Haskell, also had its mainnet candidate released to the node team. According to the update, they are “now hard at work integrating this to their own Node final release candidate.”

Once the candidate has received approval from both the node and Q&A teams, it will be handed over to the components team for the implementation of any final upgrades. The post added that since everything is going according to plan, Alonzo’s hard fork launch on the testnet is “still on track for 1 September.”

It has already been announced that 12 September is the expected date for Alonzo’s hard fork combinator (HFC) event. Once smart contracts are integrated, the network expects hordes of dApps to be built on the network, along with hosting oracles, stablecoins, DEXs, and NFT marketplaces on the Plutus platform.