Cardano Flexes Scaling Muscle with UTXO-HD Upgrade—While Eyeing Latin American Expansion

Cardano’s latest network overhaul—UTXO-HD—promises to turbocharge transaction processing while slashing storage demands. The upgrade tackles blockchain’s classic trilemma head-on: scalability without sacrificing decentralization.

Meanwhile, IOG’s Argentine push signals a play for emerging-market adoption—because nothing screams ’global financial revolution’ like betting on a country where inflation outpaces ETH’s 2021 bull run. Buenos días, unbanked masses.

Early stress tests show the network handling 3x more TPS than pre-upgrade levels. Devs claim this paves the way for enterprise-grade dApps—assuming anyone still cares about ’Ethereum killers’ in 2025.

• The Cardano node v10.4.1 introduces UTXO-HD, allowing the UTXO set to be stored externally, reducing memory usage.
• Input Output Global (IOG) and the Cardano Foundation have established significant partnerships in Argentina, including MOUs with the University of Buenos Aires and the province of Entre Ríos.
• The Mithril team has enabled incremental certification for the Cardano node database on the release-mainnet network, enhancing scalability.

The release of Cardano node version 10.4.1 marks a significant advancement with the integration of the UTXO-HD feature. This update restructures the consensus layer, allowing the UTXO set to be stored either fully in memory or externally on storage media like SSDs or HDDs.

The external storage option reduces memory usage, which is beneficial for edge nodes such as wallets and explorers, though it may slightly impact performance. Currently, the UTXO-HD implementation utilizes an LMDB backend, with plans to introduce a more optimized LSM tree-based backend in future releases.

Additional enhancements in this release include improvements to the tracing system, updates to LedgerDB configuration handling, and an upgrade of the Plutus dependency to version 1.45. These updates aim to streamline node operations and improve overall efficiency.

Strategic Partnerships Propel Cardano’s Presence in Argentina

Input Output Global (IOG) and the cardano Foundation have made significant strides in Argentina, establishing partnerships that aim to integrate blockchain technology into various sectors.

On June 7, 2024, J.J. Siler, Chief of Staff at IOG, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Faculty of Law at the University of Buenos Aires to host the Constitutional Convention and explore opportunities to utilize the Cardano blockchain.

In another strategic move, the Cardano Foundation partnered with the province of Entre Ríos on June 5, 2024, to promote and broaden the application of blockchain technology within the province. These collaborations signify Cardano’s commitment to fostering innovation and digital transformation in Latin America.

Scaling Solutions and Community Engagement

The Mithril team has enabled incremental certification for the Cardano node database (version 2) on the release-mainnet network, enhancing the scalability and reliability of the Cardano blockchain.

They have also continued working on the DMQ node implementation, completing the signature consumer and processor in the aggregator to support continuous signature handling.

Community engagement remains a cornerstone of Cardano’s growth strategy. The recent Argentina Digital Nation event, organized by the LATAM Cardano Community, attracted over 400 attendees, including political figures, private sector representatives, and technology experts.

The event featured discussions on the application of blockchain technology across various sectors and highlighted Cardano’s role in driving innovation in Argentina.

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