Cardano Rises 8% As Hoskinson Reveals Launch Date For Highly Anticipated Chang Fork

Cardano (ADA) has seen a strong rally over the past week, up nearly 15% amid a broader recovery in the cryptocurrency market. The price spike also comes on the heels of Wednesday’s announcement of the final launch date for the blockchain’s much-anticipated Chang hard fork upgrade.

The Chang hard fork, described as a significant evolution for the Cardano network, is set to establish a minimum viable on-chain governance system as outlined in CIP-1694. This upgrade will be rolled out in two stages, with the first introducing core governance features to the blockchain.

As earlier reported by Bitcoinist, the Cardano ecosystem’s key member-based organization, Intersect, has announced that the Chang hard fork working group has reviewed the progress and community feedback, paving the way for the formal proposal of the upgrade’s launch timeline.

The target date for the mainnet hard fork is set for Tuesday, August 27th, with a final decision scheduled for early Friday, August 23rd. This four-day lead time will allow for the necessary governance actions and sign-off on the hard fork.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expressed his anticipation for the upcoming upgrade, stating, “Are you prepared for Chang? Rocket is on the pad. Governance is coming.”

To align with the Chang hard fork, Input Output Global (IOG), the developer company behind the Cardano blockchain, has released a mandatory update to the Daedalus wallet, version 6.0.0. This update is essential for users to operate in the “Conway era” following the hard fork.

The first stage of the Chang upgrade, dubbed Chang Upgrade #1, will introduce core governance features to the Cardano blockchain, marking the beginning of the “technical bootstrapping phase” as per CIP-1694. 

The second stage, Chang Upgrade #2, will further expand these governance implementations, effectively transitioning out of the bootstrapping phase and activating the comprehensive features outlined in CIP-1694.

At the time of writing, ADA has risen 8% in the last 24 hours to a current trading price of $0.3701, just below its 200-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $0.3779, one of ADA’s near-term resistance walls preventing the price from moving higher.

A break above this key indicator will be crucial to regain the $0.400 level for the ADA price, a zone not seen since last month prior to the broader market crash on August 5th. 

Conversely, at $0.3505 is the token’s 50-day EMA, which currently acts as the strongest support for the ADA price on the daily ADA/USDT chart, preventing another retest of the $0.3110 level. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com