Cardano has successfully run its very first smart contract on Alonzo public testnet, according to a June 11 development update. The addition of the Alonzo upgrade will give Cardano the ability to compete with leading blockchain platforms like Ethereum, Binance, Polkadot, Solana among others.

Cardano Runs its First Smart Contract On Alonzo Testnet

The launch of Alonzo will take place in multiple phases, with each phase identified by a color and opening up to more of the public until it fully integrates. The current phase, blue, will be succeeded by Alonzo White and Alonzo Purple.

Currently, the team is in the middle of the “Alonzo Blue”, the first stage of Alonzo testnet.

“The first simple Plutus smart contract has this week been successfully run on the AlonzoBlue Cardano testnet” – learn more in June’s mid-month development update https://t.co/3WEQi9hqCX

— IOHK Media (@IOHKMedia) June 11, 2021

“Alonzo Blue” is described as the foundation of programmable smart contracts on the Cardano chain that involves working with limited members of key members including stake pool operators and Plutus pioneers and early Cardano (ADA) enthusiasts.

As soon as partners and pioneers will be able to create basic scripts, Cardano will be ready to transition to “Alonzo White,” expected to start in July with 500 testers on board.

The testnet will be fully public during the “Alonzo Purple” phase when all stake pool operators and Plutus pioneers will be able to join where all of Plutus components, including application backend, will be introduced.

Alonzo Marks the Last Phase in the “Goguen” Era

Alonzo is a hard fork that will introduce new features to the Cardano network through its integration of the Plutus scripts, eventually leading to the development of new decentralized applications (dApps).

Cardano is being built in five stages, each named after famous poets or computer scientists. For instance, Cardano’s Goguen phase is named after Joeseph Goguen, an American professor of computer science from the University of California and the University of Oxford.

Before the Goguen stage, Cardano completed its “Shelley” phase that transitioned Cardano into a completely decentralized blockchain where the community became the validators of the chain instead of the developers.

The current phase, Alonzo marks the last step in the network’s “Goguen” era.