Cardano Developer Unveils Major Milestone in ADA Protocol Evolution

As a seasoned analyst with a penchant for blockchain technology and a keen eye for potential game-changers, I must say that IOG’s unveiling of Ouroboros Peras is an exciting development in the Cardano ecosystem. My years of experience in this field have taught me to appreciate the intricacies of blockchain protocols and their underlying mechanisms, and the solution to the transactions’ settlement horizon issue addressed by Peras is nothing short of impressive.


Input Output Global (IOG), the technology company behind Cardano, has revealed the next stage in the Cardano protocol’s development. In a recent tweet, IOG presented Ouroboros Peras, an enhancement of the Ouroboros Praos protocol designed to address the challenge of transaction settlement timelines.

Ouroboros Peras, a development from Ouroboros Praos, addresses the challenge related to the finality time of transactions, which is the moment when the possibility of a transaction being reversed becomes nearly nonexistent.

In simpler terms, the Ouroboros Peras is a development built upon the Ouroboros Praos system, aimed at solving the issue related to the finality of transactions, or the moment when it’s highly unlikely that a transaction will be reversed.

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) October 14, 2024

In essence, Peras operates by using consensus among Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) to give more significance to blocks that have the most agreement from these operators. Instead of selecting the longest chain as the norm, the selection rule is modified to pick the heaviest chain.

The Cardano blockchain operates using the Ouroboros protocol. In its current iteration, Ouroboros (specifically Praos), adds new blocks in a probabilistic manner. A proposed improvement, named Peras, aims to strengthen Praos by incorporating a system where Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) indirectly express their support for blocks that are slightly behind the front-runner in their preferred chain.

In a groundbreaking move, Input Output’s innovative development process, where Peras plays a role, seeks to minimize the gap between initial research findings and practical application by adopting rapid prototyping techniques.

Scaling Cardano

To achieve the expected growth of the Cardano system, it’s crucial to incorporate several scalability enhancements. Notably, advancements in the technologies known as Hydra and Mithril have made significant strides.

Furthermore, advancements are being made on the Ouroboros protocol, focusing on enhancing its layer-1 functionality for better efficiency.

On Layer 2, Hydra facilitates swift and efficient transaction processing at a high speed. However, neither Hydra nor Mithril directly tackle the issues of throughput and latency within the Cardano mainnet.

As a consequence, two fresh iterations of the Ouroboros protocol have emerged: Ouroboros Peras and Leios. Peras aims to decrease transaction settlement times, while Leios concentrates on optimizing network bandwidth usage. These technological advancements are projected to enhance user experience by enabling swifter recording and settlement of more transactions on the blockchain.

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2024-10-15 14:43