Home Technology The Cardano validator: what’s the difference between smart contracts and programmable validators?

The Cardano validator: what’s the difference between smart contracts and programmable validators?

by Yash Ranjan
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The Alonzo upgrade came with lots of questions, and since the last two months, there have been a series of interviews, answers, and misconceptions surrounding the Cardano blockchain. While Cardano is preparing for expansion into Africa, a recent tweet from Charles Hoskinson has given birth to a series of questions as he said, “he’d prefer the new feature on the Cardano network to be regarded as programmable validator” instead of the popular smart contracts. Now, most crypto enthusiasts are beginning to question if there are any differences between these two concepts. Could this be one of the reasons why most investors won’t buy Cardano, or would it be the reason they would?

Here’s a brief explanation of what these two concepts mean;

Smart contracts:

More than the general meaning of what smart contracts are, they refer to the series of on-chain validators and off-chain codes driving every blockchain activity. One of the leading speculative reasons why Charles preferred the term “programmable validators” to “smart contracts” is because Ethereum is already affiliated to that term “smart contract.” If Cardano would be standing out, it needs something more unique. On the other hand, programmable validator seems to encompass smart contract, so it’s a broader term. While there are several other speculations regarding this subject, it is worthy to note that smart contracts are not what most individuals have termed them to be. There are other subsets of smart contract that does the main execution. However, it is regarded as smart contract because it runs on blockchain technology and is 100% decentralized once the codes are executed. Smarts contracts are more like misnomers. 

Programmable validators:

As mentioned above, one of the core reasons Hoskinson has preferred programmable validators to smart contracts is the similarity with Ethereum. Having a name different from what has already been established will impact marketing, just like this is making headlines. This is good as it increases the chances of investors buying Cardano. Most individuals would buy Cardano because of this difference because they want something that would stand out from the crows, remember Cardano is known as the “Ethereum killer.” In less than 24 hours of Cardano’s Alonzo upgrade, more than 100 smart contracts were deployed on it even after the slight issue of parallelism the upgrade faced. 

One important feature about validators is that they are determinable, and every of their result depends on the capacity of transactions they can carry with predictable fees. Hence, they are very much similar to “pure functions” as in functional programming. In contrast to Solana, Ethereum, and Algorand that use smart contracts, Cardano won’t. Instead, they are referenced by hash function even before usage, and these functions are exposed immediately after activation.  

Will this latest development have any effect on the price of Cardano?

The price of any crypto is what most investors are after, and if a new development would either make or mar a coin. With the recent developments in the Cardano network, it is safe to say that now is the time to buy Cardano. Cardano is moving towards sustainability, and not only this; it’s beginning to partner with several organizations across the globe. Recently, the Cardano network announced its expansion to Africa, where it’d be helping solve problems in the education system and healthcare. However, there are several other incoming announcements that would see the price of ADA break out. 

For newbies that might be wondering if this new development won’t cause Cardano to crumble, no, it won’t. As mentioned earlier, Cardano has a solid fundamental, and it’s also the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Hence, there’s no such thing as Cardano pulling your investments in the mud. Nonetheless, it is essential to note that the crypto community is volatile, and you should invest accordingly. The Cardano network is an interesting one; although the price of the native token ADA is trading around the $2 point, Cardano has the capacity of going as high as $5 before 2025. 

The process between the word “transactions” is not as easy as the word might appear, but it becomes more accessible since it’s on a blockchain. Transactions on the Cardano network are faster than those at less than 5 secs for validation. Cardano network could carry our peer-to-peer transactions, making it one of the most exciting cryptos in the crypto community. With just $200, you can buy Cardano on almost all exchange platforms across the crypto community, accumulating as much as possible.

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