{"id":428455,"date":"2020-06-25T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/?p=428455"},"modified":"2020-07-01T14:01:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:01:45","slug":"the-cardano-incentivized-testnet-draws-to-a-close-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/the-cardano-incentivized-testnet-draws-to-a-close-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cardano Incentivized Testnet Draws to a Close – What’s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The highly anticipated Shelley mainnet is on track for rollout on July 29th, 2020<\/a>. Shelley is all about decentralizing the Cardano network, of which a key component of this development phase is staking rewards for token holders.<\/p>\n

Not only did it facilitate real-world game theory, from which the Shelley mainnet could be developed, but metrics<\/a> show over one thousand stake pool operators came on board, and 38% of the ADA supply was delegated during the process.<\/p>\n

What Now For The ITN?<\/h2>\n
As the ITN draws to a close, many are wondering what happens next. After all, the ITN infrastructure took considerable time and effort to build.<\/p>\n
The ITN features a different codebase<\/a> to the mainnet, being developed in Rust, whereas the mainnet is built on Haskell. This raises questions over the usefulness of the ITN going forward.<\/p>\n
On that note, as pointed out by Cardano Dan<\/a>, allowing the ITN to die away would be wasteful.<\/p>\n
“It would be a shame for all of this hard work and success to go to waste. After all, the ITN is one of, if not the most, decentralized blockchain in the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But then again, the success of the ITN boiled down to both stake pool operators and ADA holders being incentivized to participate.<\/p>\n
Should the ITN live on, a new incentivize must be offered, and in doing so could potentially compete with the Shelley mainnet. Alternatively, insufficient rewards would see it wither away.<\/p>\n
Cardano Reaches Out to the Crypto Community<\/h2>\n
Charles Hoskinson<\/a> tweeted his thoughts on the situation. He proposed to extend the use of the ITN by making it a rapid testing network for Cardano.<\/p>\n
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This post should help. I'll be releasing a whiteboard tonight as well https:\/\/t.co\/RqYm2yBke3<\/a><\/p>\n
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) June 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n