During the current year, Cardano network developers managed to introduce and implement smart contracts capabilities on the network with success. However, the roadmap for the blockchain has many more important milestones to achieve. Recently, Cardano developers have launched a new testnet.
As mentioned in a new blog post on IOG, the testnet is for a new peer-to-peer protocol for the Cardano network. At this stage, a selected number of pool operators can access the network and test its various functions while removing any possible bugs. The main purpose of the P2P feature is to increase decentralization.
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At this point, the Cardano network is hosting around 3000 unique staking pool operators or SPOs. All of these SPOs are directly responsible for the distributed nodes for powering the blockchain. With the introduction of pool operators, direction interaction before integration will be possible at the discretion of the participants.
According to the Cardano developers, the need to establish better communication paths between the nodes inspired the P2P project. The alternative and current decentralization algorithm for Cardano is Ouroboros. Once the P2P protocol is ready for a pilot run, it will be included in the master node branch.
The smart contract capability is acting like a grappling hook that the Cardano developers are using to add more features to the network. A recent statement from IOG on the P2P nodes stated that with the new streamlined communication channels, it would be possible to keep powering the network without interference from a federated relay.
The statement also clarified that with the new nodes distribution mechanism, the selection of peers would be automated and allow Cardano to become more decentralized intrinsically. During the current month, the Cardano network announced that the recorded total number of smart contracts projects running on Plutus had reached 888. However, developers have made it clear that despite the testnet, P2P will not go live on the blockchain this year.
