Cardano finally launches Ouroboros Hydra

Cardano has launched its off-chain scalability protocol, Ouroboros Hydra, after working on it for five years. According to a Cointelegraph report, the protocol significantly increases Cardano scalability and, at the same time, ensures low latency and minimal storage of data per node. Using the algorithm, developers will be able to build dApps that require low fees or instant transactions. 

As per a spokesperson from IOHK, the company behind Cardano., the new solution is the result of a five-year European Union-funded collaborative research project and can theoretically scale to a million transactions per second. Hydra users can connect to the network and simultaneously create ten “heads.” Each head creates a “lane” of throughput for transactions and data.

The University of Edinburgh conducted simulations, which revealed that each Hydra head could handle around 1,000 transactions per second and it can be even further optimized as well.

With 1000 heads the network could theoretically scale to a million transactions per second - comfortably in excess of current global payment systems such as VISA.

As per the announcement, Ouroboros Hydra approaches the theoretical limit of possible transactions within the limitations of network speed, number of participants and the geographical distance. Director of Edinburgh University’s Blockchain Laboratory, Aggelos Kiayias said:

Solving the scalability question is the holy grail for the whole blockchain space. The time has come to apply a principled, evidence-based approach in designing and engineering blockchain scalability solutions and this research is a decisive step in this direction.