Valentine’s Day Gift for Cardano Community: The Much-Anticipated Upgrade is Almost Here

This Valentine’s Day, the Cardano community has a lot to be excited about. Valentine (SECP) upgrade is expected to bring a slew of new advancements and improvements to the Cardano network.

Cardano, as one of the world’s leading blockchain platforms, has always prioritized security and interoperability. The Valentine upgrade is intended to improve on these features, particularly for cross-chain DApp development with Plutus. Developers will be able to create decentralized applications that can securely interact with other blockchain networks, opening up new avenues for innovation and growth.

The Valentine upgrade is scheduled to go live on the mainnet on 14 February 2023, at 21:44:51 UTC, according to a Twitter thread posted on 8 February 2023 by Input Output Global (“IOG”), the blockchain technology firm responsible for the development of Cardano ($ADA). To ensure a smooth transition to the new upgrade, the Cardano Foundation and IOG are collaborating closely with exchanges, staking pool operators (SPOs), and DApp/tool developers

Tim Harrison, Vice President Community & Ecosystem at IOG, explained why IOG is “adding new built-in functions to Plutus to support ECDSA and Schnorr signatures” in a blog post published on January 19, 2023.

Harrison discussed the significance of cryptography in blockchain settings as well as the various cryptographic signature methods used in different blockchains. Cardano appears to employ the Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA), which provides quick signature verification and small signature sizes. However, due to algorithm differences, Plutus DApp developers may find it difficult to validate signatures from other blockchains, such as ECDSA and Schnorr. To address this issue, IOG has added new built-in functions to Plutus that support ECDSA and Schnorr signatures, making it easier for developers to create cross-chain applications while maintaining the highest level of security.