According to skeptics, the chain has had smart contract capabilities for almost four months and the network is still failing to acquire momentum. During this whole period, Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Input Output (IO), addressed these issues. During the latest end-of-year live webcast, Hoskinson said that a massive DeFi network is beginning to emerge.
Nevertheless, detractors might argue that words are meaningless. And that Hoskinson’s remarks do not promote a significant, functional dApp economy. Cardano, on the other hand, got its first functioning DeFi dApp two days after broadcasting the live webcast for queries.
Ever since launch of Alonzo on September 12, the Cardano environment has been under strain to expand. Hundreds of initiatives are in the works, including DEXes, wallets, DeFi, meme currencies, stablecoins, oracles, and NFTs, to mention a handful.
Considering SundaeSwap’s well publicised testnet at the beginning of December, as well as IO’s work with the core team to guarantee a seamless testnet, many people expected SundaeSwap would be the foremost functional DeFi dApp to go live. SundaeSwap, nevertheless, is still not prepared for its mainnet debut after a month. Ergo and Liqwid are two more candidates for the initial practical DeFi dApp.
But MuesliSwap, which went online on January 2 and presently has a total value locked (TVL) of $845,000, has surpassed them all, representing 100% of the Cardano DeFi network, as per DeFi Lama. MuesliSwap is a decentralized exchange with launchpad capability that operates on the Bitcoin Cash network.
Out of the 87 blockchains listed on DeFi Lama, Cardano is ranked 78th, above lesser-known chains like Ubiq, Hoo, and Liquidchain. Ethereum comes in top place with $158 billion TVL. Terra, on the other hand, placed second in TVL, well behind Ethereum, with $20 billion in total value locked. As a result, Cardano has a significant challenge in measuring up to its “Ethereum-killer” moniker.
While it’s great that Cardano is already operational, Hoskinson said in his latest live broadcast that there would be more to emerge in 2022. Hoskinson particularly mentioned “reaching a happy place of eloquence as a community.” In other sense, although the framework is in existence, IO must still enhance the protocol to ensure DeFi is as good as it can be. This requires improving scalability, increasing interconnection, and focusing on administration.
“Cardano is our group’s effort to reflect, improve, and drive it forward, with just a little touch of sprinkling magic and scalability and a bunch of conversation about inter-connectivity and identification, as well as a fair bit of work completed on governance.”
His general takeaway message emphasized the magnitude of labor that has poured into Cardano to far. And what’s on the horizon in regards to future-proofing. As a result, the community may be certain that the initiative will remain effective for years, if not forever, thanks to its governance structure.