Cardano Launches Major Hydra Upgrade, Here’s What Changed

The Cardano blockchain has significantly upgraded the Hydra Head scaling solution, embodied in version 0.18.0. This update will help enhance transactions on the protocol, eliminating withdrawal lags.

Cardano Hydra Head: The New Changes

According to the update from Sebastian Nagel, a Cardano core developer, the major feature of this update is “withdrawing funds from an open head without needing to close.”

Hydra version 0.18.0 is out!

Major feature: withdrawing funds from an open head without needing to close

Also fixes to ready up for Conway – make sure to update.

Now back to work on incremental commits..and ofc a hellish demo coming up at Rare Evo 😈https://t.co/zegI36dZMo

— Sebastian Nagel (@ch1bo_) August 9, 2024

Additionally, it brings documentation improvements and fixes for the internal wallet fee calculation amongst other upgrades. Cardano developers have committed effort and resources to implementing the Hydra v0.18.0 upgrade. As of last week, the team hinted at the coming of the upgrade.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson teased his followers and ADA community members about the coming of the much-anticipated Hydra. He shared a link to a Hydra Doom website with more details. On the other hand, these entities demonstrated excitement, further underscoring their readiness for the upgrade.

For a very long time, several entities assumed that Cardano had abandoned the Hydra project.  However, this recent updates confirms that the scaling solution remains on track.

More Upgrades on Cardano And Ethereum

Another upgrade that the Cardano ecosystem is intensely looking forward to is the Chang Hard Fork. Two weeks ago, this upgrade drew closer with the introduction of Node 9.1.0. Intersect, a member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem described the upgrade as the final version to bring on-chain decision-making to Cardano.

Node 9.1.0 came with a unique feature; the presence of a Conway genesis file for startup. This file plays a crucial part to crossing the Chang Hard Fork

Notably, Cardano price has recorded positive resurgence in recent times following news of network updates. With this revelation, the developer has asked key node operators to update their software to accommodate the new changes.

In line with related upgrades, Ethereum developers are in the middle of preparations to introduce more improvements on Pectra upgrade.