Charles Hoskinson-Backed RATS Pool Updated To Sign Mithril Certificates

Samuel Leathers, IOG Core Tech Head of Product and co-owner of the RATS pool with Charles Hoskinson has declared that the Cardano (ADA) pool has been updated to a new version.

Charles Hoskinson Canvasses for Upgrades RATS Node

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Leathers, who was a DevOps Engineer at Input Output (IOHK), launched RATS pool three years ago for staking ADA. The pool was given the name RATS in reference to the “King of Rats” status given to Hoskinson by the CEO of Blockstream, Adam Back. 

The pool allows Cardano users to delegate their ADA crypto and it has been running since that time. 

As a protocol known for its constant upgrades and improvements, the Cardano innovators has decided to upscale the RATS pool. Therefore, the RATS Cardano pool was upgraded to Cardano-node 8.9.1. In addition to this upgrade, RATS can now sign Mithril certificates and use the new P2P feature that enables bootstrap peers and peer sharing on Cardano relays. 

Hoskinson was seen on X, encouraging his followers to ensure that they delegate their ADA to the RATS pool. He also highlighted that all the staked funds are put into “RATS related shenanigans.”

More Upgrades To Come To Cardano

Apart from the upgrade of RATS pool to Cardano-node 8.9.1, Hoskinson had previously hinted at some other transformative upgrades that would be rolled out on the parent Cardano protocol in the first half of this year. 

This included the Chang Hardfork and Plutus V3 upgrade, two crucial milestones for the blockchain platform. Plutus V3 Engine was launched about a month ago to improve performance on the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network.

Chang Hardfork would likely come in Q2, 2024 although not much has been said concerning it yet by the Cardano developer team.

Beyond blockchain protocols, Hoskinson is already intentionally considering Artificial Intelligence (AI) especially with the sudden hype surrounding the innovative technology. It is worth acknowledging that his interest in AI is not new.

As a voice in the industry, he recently predicted that 2030 may bring enhanced computational capabilities. His forecast, which hinges on the high-performance hardware and model training development going on. He suggests that standard gaming PCs will run models with 1,000 times the power of today’s leading AI, Mixtral.