Cardano (ADA -0.51%) is sowing the seeds to be a top Layer 1 protocol that could one day surpass Ethereum (ETH 1.28%). Developers can build decentralized applications (dApps) on the Cardano blockchain, as well as write smart contracts that automatically execute based on a predetermined parameter set.

But Cardano and its founder and leader Charles Hoskinson have received a fair amount of criticism for taking a slow and methodical approach to rolling out updates, a process that is basically the opposite strategy of Solana (SOL -1.05%) which more or less throws updates at the wall and hopes they stick.

The Vasil (pronounced like “fossil” with a “V”) hard fork has been a long-anticipated upgrade and is by far the most important in Cardano’s history. It will speed up transaction time and lower transaction costs, which could give Cardano a better all-around combination of decentralization, speed, security, and costs than Ethereum and Solana.

However, there have been many headlines that the Vasil hard fork has been delayed, putting pressure on Cardano’s native cryptocurrency, the Ada token, which is down over 80% from its all-time high. Here’s a breakdown of what the Cardano Foundation, Cardano’s Input Output Global (IOG) team, and Hoskinson said about the delay, and why Cardano could be a great long-term buy now with its price below $0.50.

Status of the Vasil hard fork

IOG published a blog post on June 20 that said about 95% of the Plutus V2 test scripts are complete. Scripts are basically programs that process and validate transactions based on a set of rules. Plutus is a smart contract platform unique to the Cardano blockchain.

IOG said there are seven bugs outstanding, but none are ranked as “severe.” The plan is to hard fork the Cardano testnest at the end of June as a trial run that will allow exchanges and developers to interact and get acclimated with the updates. Four weeks after that, IOG and the Cardano Foundation plan to hard fork the mainnet.  

Why the delay is inconsequential

So, the project is delayed by about a month — which isn’t a good look for Cardano. But to be fair, major upgrades in the crypto space have a reputation for taking longer than expected. The final phase of the Ethereum merge, formerly known as the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, has been delayed for several months.

Hoskinson, who often posts video updates to keep the Cardano community informed, released a video on June 20 in response to the delay.  

“We’re pretty close to the target, we’re code complete,” said Hoskinson. “And what code complete effectively means is you probably could flip the switch and get away with it, and certain projects would do that. But what happened after the collapse of Terra Luna (LUNA -0.80%) is that I gave a directive to a lot of the engineers to say we should probably measure three times and cut once given the nature of things.”

The May TerraUSD (USTC) collapse shocked the crypto industry when the algorithmic stable coin lost 99% of its value in less than a week. Many stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed dollar for dollar with cash. However, algorithmic stablecoins don’t have reserves, and instead, use algorithms and smart contracts to control supply. Crypto volatility and a swift market drawdown exposed the holes in TerraUSD. The collapse has been one of the most extreme failures in the crypto industry and a case study in avoiding mistakes and ensuring, as Hoskinson said, that firms should “measure three times and cut once.”

Hoskinson said that his team had several constructive conversations with developers and ultimately reminded folks that the main objective of the hard fork is to make it easier, faster, and less expensive for developers to use Cardano. And ultimately, that should make it a better alternative than other Layer 1 protocols. Hoskinson continued:

At the end of the day this is not a hard fork for the average Cardano user. The Vasil hard fork has always been a hard fork specifically for dApp developers. It speeds up the transaction rate with pipelining and then all the scripts are basically here to make Plutus smart contracts easier to write. If you’re a developer, whether you’re doing it on the mainnet or the testnet, you should have the same development environment in that respect. So what’s more meaningful to the community, frankly, is making sure that the test net runs Vasil so that people that are building dApps on Cardano can deploy those dApps.

In short, the launch of the testnet should give developers about a month to play around and get used to the upgrade. It will take time for folks unfamiliar with Cardano to experiment with Plutus smart contracts. In the video, Hoskinson went on to express his frustration with the delay, but said he felt that it was within “an acceptable zone.” 

Cardano could be a great long-term buy

Over the last few years, Hoskinson and his team have done an impressive job by being open with the community, not making excuses, and encouraging folks to get involved on its open-source platform. Cardano has established a reputation for trust and transparency, largely due to Hoskinson’s direct communication style that avoids exaggerating Cardano’s capabilities or trying to sell it as a better alternative to other Layer 1 protocols.

However, there’s an opportunity cost to Cardano’s patience. Ethereum continues to be the go-to Layer 1 blockchain for dApps. And Solana has emerged as a cheaper and faster alternative to Ethereum and has grown to become a hub for non-fungible token (NFT) transactions. In fact, Solana has even passed Ethereum in NFT sales volume on multiple occasions.

It remains to be seen whether Cardano’s approach will pay out over the long term. For investors who value leadership, there’s a good argument that Cardano has the best of any Layer 1 protocol. However, given how young the crypto industry is, it’s probably best to go with a basket of cryptos rather than to try and pick a single winner.