Phase 1: Byron (Complete)

Byron marks the initial release of the Cardano (ADA) blockchain. A little known fact is that Cardano’s ticker symbol, ADA, refers to Ada Lovelace, who is often considered one of the world’s first computer programmers. Released in September of 2017, Byron brought Cardano to the market with an MVP (Minimally Viable Product). Users could send and receive transactions, as well as store their coins in the official Daedalus wallet. That was about it. The real potential of Cardano would only be revealed in later releases.

Phase 2: Shelley (Complete)

This phase is when the Cardano network becomes more decentralized and staking is implemented. The Shelley era encompasses the critical early steps in Cardano’s journey to optimize decentralization – and like any first steps, these will be gradual but significant. During the Byron era the network was federated, but as the Shelley era progresses more and more nodes will shift towards being run by the Cardano community. Once the majority of nodes are run by network participants, Cardano will be more decentralized and enjoy greater security and robustness as a result.

Phase 3: Goguen

The Goguen update will bring smart contract capabilities to the protocol. One of Goguen’s most exciting features will be the Marlowe programming language. The idea behind Marlowe is that it will allow people with no programming experience to create smart contracts. Loads more information about Marlowe and how it will work is provided on Cardano’s website. The Goguen era represents a step change in the abilities of Cardano, opening the way to the development of enterprise-level, mission-critical, decentralized smart contract applications, with even more exciting things to come during the Basho and Voltaire eras.

Phase 4: Basho

The main feature of Basho is that it will bring sidechains to Cardano. This will help the network to scale so that it can handle significantly more transactions per second. The Basho era of Cardano is an era of optimization, improving the scalability and interoperability of the network. Whereas previous development eras focused on decentralization and new functionality, Basho is about improving the underlying performance of the Cardano network to better support growth and adoption for applications with high transaction volume.

Phase 5: Voltaire

The Voltaire era of Cardano will provide the final pieces required for the Cardano network to become a self-sustaining system. With the introduction of a voting and treasury system, network participants will be able to use their stake and voting rights to influence the future development of the network. To fund the future development of the network, Voltaire will also see the addition of a treasury system, whereby a fraction of all transaction fees will be pooled to provide funds for development activities undertaken following the voting process.