Cardano’s network has surpassed a major milestone with more than 10 billion ADA being staked following last month’s Shelley hard fork. 

According to data provided by ADAPools, more than 10.47 billion ADA is being staked on the network, with the total number of available pools over 920.

Following July 29th’s long-awaited Shelley upgrade, users have been able to stake their ADA to improve network function and decentralization in return for an incentive payout. 

The number of active pools has surged more than 80% since the network upgrade’s launch, with the ultimate goal of reaching one thousand. According to the Cardano Foundation, the network will become “one of the most decentralized, scalable, and secure blockchains to date” once the mainnet reaches one thousand pools. 

Input Output HK (IOHK), the team behind cardano’s development, had promised smart contract compatibility as a feature of the Shelley upgrade. IOHK chief executive officer Charles Hoskinson confirmed on August 2 that smart contracts and native assets would be coming later in the year. 

Hoskinson also claimed that ADA’s network latency would be lower than rival network ethereum, in a tweet replying to EOS’s Dan Larimer. 

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