upgrade is liberated It was added to Cardano’s mainnet on June 19th, significantly improving epoch boundary performance and fixing previous concerns about P2P/DNS. The Cardano GitHub states, “All SPOs are strongly encouraged to update.”
Cardano Node 8.1.1 Upgrade
This upgrade is considered a minor release intended to ensure better network connectivity and user stability. DIGI’s Rick McCracken tweeted,
“This update improves node performance on epoch boundaries and fixes previous issues with P2P/DNS. It also includes all the performance improvements from 8.0.0. Let’s rock and roll! #Cardano.”
Network improvements bring several benefits to the Cardano network, especially stake pool operators and users. Considering the increase in Total Value Locked (TVL) in Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem, the upgrade appears to target the areas of the network that see the most growth.
Benefits include increased efficiency, increased scalability, increased network security, and improved reward distribution.
Improved epoch boundary performance results in a more efficient network capable of faster transaction processing and smart contract management. This reduces latency and improves the user experience for stakeholders.
It also allows the network to handle more transactions and users simultaneously. This is crucial for the long-term growth of the Cardano ecosystem as it continues to attract more users and decentralized applications.
This upgrade also helps improve network stability by reducing potential bottlenecks and performance issues during epoch transitions. This helps maintain consistent network performance and a seamless experience for users.
For stake pool operators and participants, this upgrade further ensures a more accurate and fair distribution of rewards. This encourages stake pool operators to continue maintaining and growing the network, promoting a healthier ecosystem.
However, despite the upgrade, Cardano market statistics show a small change in price. The ADA price is currently at $0.25872, with a 24 hour change of -0.21% and a 7 day change of -8.02%. The token remains well below the all-time high of $3.09503 reached in September 2021.
Growing interest in DeFi for Cardano
Nevertheless, interest in the Cardano ecosystem is growing, and the network’s Total Locked Value (TVL) has increased significantly. In mid-June, Cardano’s DeFi TVL surged past 500 million ADA amid growing interest in the ecosystem.
On June 13, data from DeFiLlama showed that the TVL of ADA tokens rose to 513.25 million ADA from 198.65 million ADA on January 1, setting a new all-time high for smart contract networks. As of June 20, TVL has increased further to 516.49 million ADA at the time of writing, an increase of 0.63%.
This growth for TVL is impressive considering Cardano reached the 400 million ADA token milestone on May 19th. This suggests that in two months he added over 116 million new ADA tokens to the Cardano DeFi ecosystem.
It is worth noting that this increase comes despite the US SEC potentially classifying Cardano as a security in its June 5 lawsuit against Binance, although this classification has been challenged by the Cardano Foundation. The Cardano community refutes this claim. Several exchanges have also delisted ADA in recent days following regulatory uncertainty.
Cardano’s continued rise in TVL highlights a consistent upward trend in decentralized finance (DeFi) activity, in addition to continued network improvements.
