Cardano Preparing for Mobile and Web Browsers

Cardano Smart Contracts now support web browsers on testnet, a step forward in integrating with web and mobile.

Cardano Preparing for Mobile and Web Browsers. Integrating web browsers and smartphones is one of the priorities of the Cardano project, as advanced by Charles Hoskinson, its founder and lead developer. During a recent YouTube broadcast, Cardano’s founder discussed the Blockchain project’s plans to support mobile and web integration. In this regard, he advanced that the team had successfully run the backend of the Plutus application in Javascript, the most widely used programming language on the web. 

As a result, Hoskinson explained that Cardano’s Smart Contracts are now compatible with web browsers on testnet. The mathematician and CEO of IOHK, the technology development company behind the project, described the upgrade as significant. ‘The application backend […] aims to enable Plutus applications in the browser. It was an important milestone to see that team did it.’

Mobile and web integration is a priority.

In the same webcast, Hoskinson added that they need to do further testing and optimizations to improve the web compatibility of Plutus Smart Contracts. He also emphasized that web and mobile integration was one of Cardano’s priorities as the project moved toward fully deploying Smart Contract functionality.

Using Cardano ADA inside the browser and making sure it’s a great experience and getting Cardano into mobile and the ecosystem on mobile is a big priority. And, as we get closer to Goguen, it’s crucial that we also have an excellent strategy to ensure that the customer experience gets where it needs to go. In addition to browser integration, another critical priority for the team is Mithril, a protocol that will be critical to securing Cardano’s ‘thin client.’

Once implemented, Mithril will aid in the activation of Plutus Smart Contracts on mobile phones. The protocol will assure those thin clients have enough local data on the phone to verify transactions without the need for the entire blockchain. A ‘thin client‘ or light node is software that allows users to access securely and interact with the Blockchain way without storing the whole blockchain.

Cardano moves closer to Smart Contracts

Cardano is in the middle of a multi-step upgrade known as ‘Alonzo‘ that will bring Smart Contracts to their blockchain. Each phase, dubbed Blue, White, and Purple, will include more users, functionality, and features. Last week, the project moved into the second phase after deploying the hard fork, Alonzo White, on the test network. 

That multi-stage upgrade falls under the Goguen phase of the roadmap, which specifically addresses the challenge of implementing smart contracts. IOHK expects that the full release of Alonzo would simplify the development of new decentralized applications (DApps), including decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and be deployed on the mainnet by the end of August. 

While the project has received criticism about its cautious and slow development, its founder stated that Cardano is “moving forward at a fairly systematic pace.” Cardano’s latest announcement comes amid a series of exciting developments for the blockchain. Last July 15, Hoskinson unveiled a new algorithmic stablecoin, Djed, which will function as a “standalone bank.” 

For now, developers are extensively testing Smart Contracts on Alonzo’s test network, and the team is working with over a hundred integration partners to keep its Blockchain infrastructure, such as the wallet backend and application backend, in sync with Alonzo’s staggered updates.