Is Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork happening soon? Big investors seem to think so. Investment management fund Grayscale has revealed today that they have added native Cardano tokens, ADA, to the Greyscale Digital Large Cap Fund.
Greyscale is an investment fund which currently manages over $40 billion dollars worth of digital assets. The company’s mission statement says:
“We believe that digital currencies will revolutionize our legacy economic, political, and social systems.”
Greyscale had sold some other positions they were in and used this extra liquidity to add ADA to their portfolio. This is the biggest purchase the company has made since they bought a stake in Chainlink in April.
Edward McGee, the Vice President of Finance at Grayscale commented on their recent business venture by saying:
“We are excited to welcome Cardano to our Digital Large Cap Fund’s portfolio as we work to ensure that our diversified Fund can safely hold assets that collectively comprise 70% of the entire digital asset market.”
With a diverse portfolio that includes oracles, multiples smart contract platforms like Ethereum and Cardano, and Bitcoin, Grayscale doesn’t plan to stop there. McGee revealed in further comments that the company plans to continue diversification.
What is Cardano?
Cardano is a proof of stake, smart contract ecosystem founded by Charles Hoskinson. Hoskinson was a former developer on the original Ethereum team. You can read more about Hoskinson here.
Cardano has more staked value than any other cryptocurrency in the market. 70% of ADA’s $31 dollars worth of value is locked for liquidity. It’s possible Cardano could deliver on their promise of running nodes on a fully functioning smart contract platform by the end of the summer. Earlier this month, a developer from the Cardano team named Nigel revealed that the Alonzo hard fork now has the capacity to facilitate smart contract. Is this the reason Greyscale has added ADA to their portfolio? Yes, it’s likely that Grayscale’s purchase of Cardano was because of anticipation of the Cardano ecosystem finally going live.
Why was Cardano founded?
The founder of Cardano was inspired to build Cardano because as he told Lex Fridman on a recent podcast that he is competitive by nature. It’s through this competition that inspires Hoskinson to be constantly thinking of how to improve technology. Hoskinson revealed that he was a fan of Bitcoin in the early days. However, he is highly critical of the Bitcoin protocol now. He says their proof of work algorithm needs to be updated for efficiency. Hoskinson said that Bitcoin’s proof of work algorithm could be enhanced to highly improve efficiency without compromising the security of the platform. If this were to happen, Bitcoin’s electricity needs would be far less Hoskinson explains.
On the contrary, the Cardano founder is a big fan of Ethereum. He said he admires their desire to always evolve and change, and he cheered on the Ethereum 2.0 proof of stake update. He doesn’t believe that there will be one chain to rule them all either. Hoskinson envisions a future where there are multiple chains who all have their own value and special contribution to blockchains.
Final thoughts on Grayscale purchase and Cardano’s Alonzo Hard Fork
Greyscale’s recent exposure to the Cardano network indicates that they feel confident that the Cardano ecosystem will soon live up to its promise.
Aaron is passionate about blockchain and has been an investor in cryptocurrencies for the past years. He enjoys engaging with other people in the cryptocurrency community online, particularly on Telegram, and learning from experts.
