On Thursday, the developers announced on Twitter that the Hydra Head, a scaling solution to enhance the speed of transactions on the Cardano blockchain, has been activated on the mainnet. 

The Hydra Head is the initial tool in a collection of products currently being developed. This technology is a “mini ledger” off the main chain and is shared amongst a small group of users. The use of these Hydra Heads improves transaction processing times and substantially reduces associated fees.

The technical documentation states that developers can use Hydra Heads to integrate intricate decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols onto the Cardano blockchain.

Related Reading: Analysis of Cardano: How Did ADA Fare Over the Past 7 Days?

Cardano has undergone a series of upgrades this year centered on decentralized finance (DeFi). In January, djed, a decentralized stablecoin, was launched on the Cardano blockchain. Then, in February, IOG, the Cardano developer, proposed a proposition to enhance cross-chain transactions. The release of the node is the most recent of these DeFi-related updates.

IOHK  Welcomes HYDRA to the Cardano Network

According to a recent report by fxcryptonews, IOHK announced the first Hydra mainnet to the Cardano community. This announcement was further explained by Sebastian Nagel, a lead software engineer at Hydra, who provided additional insights on the project’s goals. 

Over the last 24 hours, ADA has experienced minimal changes in its value, unlike the broader cryptocurrency market, which has dropped by 2.27%, as per the data provided by Coinmarketcap.

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