2021 saw the launch of our Plutus Pioneer and Atala Pioneer programs. These interactive training courses aim to widen the reach of our education materials and have been completed by thousands of people.

The feedback we’ve received about the lectures, delivery, and support has been very positive and demonstrated a high level of commitment to learning. So we are planning some new programs in other disciplines for 2022 and more courses about both writing smart contracts in Plutus and the Atala digital identity software. DeFi – decentralized finance – aims to provide direct peer-to-peer financial transaction capability between individuals and companies, without central authorities.

How the programs were run

During these programs, participants attended weekly lectures delivered by Lars Brünjes, director of education at IOG, who also held weekly follow-up interactive Q&A sessions. People were supported by a thriving community in the Discord chat system that encouraged collaboration and problem-solving. These channels were moderated by the IOG education team, who were on hand to provide support. During the courses, Lars aimed to create a ‘we’re all in this together’ feeling and a ‘pioneer’ spirit, which was certainly evident across the dedicated channels in Discord.

The education team encouraged the enthusiasm and good will of the pioneers, so they helped and supported each other, creating a tightly-knit community in the process. In addition, we encouraged pioneers to help the next group and pass on their knowledge. The power of peer-to-peer learning cannot be underestimated.

When we launched the first Plutus Pioneer course in March, we were hoping for solid community support and engagement. We never envisaged that we would close out the year with more than 3,500 participants trained up on Plutus and Atala and ready to start building on Cardano.

We have now wrapped up the Atala Pioneer program, and are taking some time to reflect on the detailed feedback and how we can improve the experience further for the next cohorts.

Lars says:

Plutus has a steep learning curve, and it was still a bit rough around the edges, which worried me a bit in the beginning. But the enthusiasm and spirit of “we’re all in this together” I received from the community was overwhelming, making the course a tremendous success.

Outcomes of the courses

One of the most positive outcomes of these courses was the amazing community participation that we witnessed on Discord right from the start. The participants supported each other, published additional material that they worked on, were quick to report any issues, and got stuck in when it came to fixing bugs – they really were acting as true pioneers. Their assistance and testing efforts through the Alonzo testnet rollout were also highly beneficial.

We also saw a wide range of innovative materials and ideas from the courses, including new wallets, training materials, and new projects on Cardano.

Education partnerships

This year also saw the start of a partnership with the European Business University of Luxembourg (EBU) in September. EBU is a renowned educational provider and non-profit organization dedicated to higher education and certificate programs.

This partnership is sponsored by the IOG education team and aims to make education more accessible in the African region. It will give a wealth of students access to educational material for free, while also supporting the IOG strategy in the region.

EBU launched its first Plutus and Haskell course in late September, and is wrapping up after a 10-week course that was well attended and received.

What is on the horizon in 2022?

We are currently planning for the third cohort of the Plutus Pioneer course, which we are launching in early January. Enrollment is now open, so please express your interest on our registration page and we will be in touch soon. In the meantime, we are updating the lectures and materials to bring them up to speed with developments and recent tooling updates in Plutus.

We have also held planning workshops with the Marlowe team. They are working on their first Marlowe Pioneer program early next year. Meanwhile, the Atala team will be moving into their second cycle in the near future.

Within the education team, we are also working on self-learning courses. Participants will be able to pick and choose the modules they want to complete and work at their own pace, rather than follow a weekly schedule.

The next big project we are planning is a Haskell course that will be delivered in Ghana. The aim is to train up 80 student developers in how to transform local industries using blockchain technology. Ghana is striding forward in terms of blockchain, and this course will add to the pool of Haskell and Plutus developers ready to build smart contracts and DeFi applications on Cardano.

Last but not least, we are planning some new publications in 2022, including an updated version of the Plutus ebook later in the year.

To find out more about our education initiatives, follow IOG Twitter as well as the Plutus and Atala registration pages for more details.

High assurance is paramount when developing and working with smart contracts. You want to be confident that the source code is of a high quality, that the contract is secure and will behave as it should, and that it utilizes good properties and behaviors in the process. Certification ensures that security checks are performed prior to any deployment, and that smart contracts can be continually audited as they are updated. It provides benefits to both smart contract developers and end users, helping protect user funds and project reputations alike from coding errors or exploits.

At September’s Cardano Summit 2021, we laid out our plans on the introduction of new levels of certification for decentralized applications (DApps) running on Cardano. This certification program will provide levels of quality for DApps and their internal smart contacts.

This initiative has been led by Professor Simon Thompson, technical project director at IOG, and Shruti Appiah, head of product at IOG. It will help us comply with the best practices we’ve seen around the industry. We are working with Runtime Verification, Tweag, Well Typed, Certik, and others to roll out this new certification program that will link in with the new dAppStore, also unveiled in prototype form at the summit. This will be released in conjunction with the new light wallet.

What are the different certification levels?

There are three levels of certification, each of which is complementary to the others, rather than being progressive in terms of assurance and auditing purposes.

Level one: Automated tooling

This certification level gives continual assurance about a range of properties for smart contracts. It covers the discovery of different types of issues or bugs and is characterized as low cost, low effort, accessible to everyone while providing a substantial level of assurance.

It can be applied repeatedly and automatically, so each time there is a release or a sub-release of an application, we can test to ensure that the application still has the properties that we expect.

Level two: In-depth audit

This level involves looking at the technology and processes that led to it being produced. It is characterized by the fact that it involves a manual audit and verification of smart contracts within the DApp itself.

The testing is performed at a much more in-depth level and involves more manual effort that can address a DApp in its entirety, even if it is written in a variety of languages.

Level three: Formal verification

This level is more specialized where we aim to provide full assurance of critical aspects of applications through formal verification of smart contracts. Formal verification involves ensuring that a smart contract serves the specific business or technical requirements defined at the outset.

What kind of assurance can we expect?

Certification will ensure the correctness, compliance, and consistency of requirements by both application developers and auditors. It will also guarantee the absence of common security vulnerabilities and provide a level of robustness, reliability, and maintenance of DApps deployed on Cardano. While certification will be strongly encouraged and the store curated accordingly, it will not however be mandatory or act as any kind of ‘gatekeeper’ thus maintaining a balance between the need for user assurance and decentralized principles.

By auditing the specifications and design and ideation phases, you can present evidence to the community and guarantee that things will work as expected. This evidence includes documentation of requirements to a detailed level, thereby creating a reference point for the future.

Certification status in the dAppStore

We plan to integrate this certification with the new dAppStore that we are building to provide cryptographically secure non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that give evidence of the levels of certification that we will guarantee. The dAppStore will be part of a light wallet that IO is developing, and users will be able to access the light wallet and dAppStore using a web browser, and in the store to view the certification status of each DApp as they browse through the categories and individual applications. Making the relevant certification status visible to users during the selection process will offer reassurance on quality and safety for users in their choice of DApps.

To learn more about our dAppStore plans, you can watch a concept walkthrough on the dAppStore summit video.

What is next for certification?

Professor Thompson says:

We want to build support from the industry for emerging standards of certification. In the longer term, we will work with our partners and others to articulate best practices, which may involve forming an umbrella industry body to define new standards and practices for this domain.

We also plan to work with our ecosystem of partners to support certification of the first DApps on Cardano; one of a number of DEXs looking to launch on Cardano this year SundaeSwap also announced their plans at the summit to certify.

It is still early days. There are some technical challenges that we are busy working through about how we support versioning of DApps, how they will be packaged, and how to make them available to automated tooling. However, we are very excited about this journey with our partners and the general community to deliver a secure platform and applications built on top of it.

To learn even more about certification levels, and meet some of the partners on the program, make sure you watch the [https://summit.cardano.org/sessions/smart-contract-certification-the-why-and-how) from the Cardano summit.

We are pleased to announce a new and exciting partnership between IOHK and the European Business University of Luxembourg (EBU) to make education accessible for everyone in developing countries.

EBU is a renowned educational provider and non profit organization dedicated to higher education and certificate programs. They are partnered with over 36 key global organizations and currently educate over 2000 students in 25 countries on the African continent. Together, we intend to roll out our training programs on a wider scale. We firmly believe that EBU can play a pivotal role in furthering the prospects of the people of Africa with this expansion of their scholarship program that will provide great benefits to prospective students.

The objective of this partnership is to expand the teaching and content material with the provision of courses in Plutus and Haskell to a broader audience, thereby empowering people in developing countries to learn new skills and become self-sufficient.

Working closely with Alexis Hague and Dr. James Mulli, directors at the European Business University of Luxembourg (EBU), this new partnership will be sponsored by IOHK’s director of education, Lars Brünjes, in conjunction with our IOHK education team. The collaboration will give a wealth of new African students access to educational material for free, whilst also supporting our mission in the region.

Widening the reach of education in Africa

These programs have been developed to meet the increasing demand for Haskell programmers and enable students to work on DeFi solutions, application programming, tokenization projects, and smart contract development.

IOHK will support the Plutus-Haskell offering that EBU plans to deliver to students with teaching and content material for the provision of these courses. EBU will promote the IOHK goal of bringing smart-contract developer expertise to students and relevant stakeholders in Africa and other continents. This is a very positive benefit to those people who are interested in getting up to speed and ready for the Alonzo release that will deliver smart contract functionality.

How will the scholarship program work?

EBU will include Haskell in their curriculum and offer courses in Plutus and Haskell to students who are enrolled in the EBU Certificate program at no tuition cost to the student, but with a €10 commitment fee. In addition, students who join the EBU Ambassador program will be incentivized to grow the courses using an “Earn as you Learn” stipend for bringing new students on board. Both of these rewards offer direct benefits to the students who enroll on our courses and will help us to grow and expand this program organically.

IOHK and EBU will work together to support the implementation of each other’s missions for education and creating opportunities for people in developing countries. This will be achieved using tools such as an education for all approach, the provision of learning hubs with internet for participants, and the practical implementation of blockchain solutions.

How can I sign up?

If you are interested in signing up for these training programs ahead of the start of EBU’s new term on September 27th, please visit the EBU scholarship website to register and enroll. Participants will then receive a coupon code to use for enrollment. We are pleased to confirm that the price of these courses will be waived and only includes a nominal administration fee. If you have any questions, please contact EBU admissions or EBU administration.

Looking forward

We plan to release these training programs and content publicly in GitHub in the near future, so that other institutions can follow this approach and roll out their own Haskell and Plutus training courses. Stay tuned for more details on availability of this content coming soon.

Cardano has been designed in modules, with linked components that can be used in various ways. These components form the Cardano ‘platform stack’. They work together under the hood to support the construction and use of the live Cardano blockchain.

We are currently in the early testnet phase on the way to the Alonzo hard fork, which will bring full smart contract capability to Cardano. This process is highly complex, requiring the steady upgrade of the different elements which make up the Cardano platform, and their careful integration and testing. So, it is a good time to revisit these components, explain some of the terminology, and discover how they interact within the ‘platform stack’.

Elements of the Cardano platform stack

Figure 1. Components that communicate with the Cardano node

The platform stack for Cardano includes these core components:

• Cardano node (and associated processes)
• Cardano wallet
• Wallet command line interface (CLI)
• DB Sync (synchronizes blockchain data with a relational database)
• PostgreSQL database (which interacts with GraphQL, REST API, and Smash)
• Smash server
• Rosetta API (blockchain communication protocol)

Note that the Daedalus wallet is not part of the core stack, but does communicate with the components (Figure 1).

The node and the networking layer

First, let's take a look at the Cardano node. This software runs on your computer and underpins the network, enabling everyone to participate in the decentralized blockchain. The node integrates the consensus, ledger, and networking sub-components, providing top-level configuration, API, CLI, logging, memory management, and monitoring capabilities that can be used by other Cardano components or by skilled users. Daedalus is a full-node wallet, so if you are running that on your local machine, you are effectively helping to run the network.

The networking layer

Next, we have the networking layer. This links each Cardano node into a distributed system that manages the blockchain and associated services. The network consists of a collection of nodes that communicate with each other to maintain the distributed ledger, support transaction submission, and interact with user wallets and other services. The core of the network is built around the decentralized nodes – the stake pools – that collectively validate blocks, and add new blocks to the chain. They are supported by dedicated relay nodes that manage network connections and establish the structure of the network as a whole. The dedicated consumer nodes that are run by the Daedalus wallet and other services connect to this network to track and submit transactions on-chain.

Cardano nodes maintain connections with their peers. A set of mini-protocols enable communication between the nodes. Each mini-protocol implements a basic information exchange requirement, such as informing peers of the latest block, sharing blocks as needed, or sharing new transactions around the Cardano network. For connection purposes, mini-protocols are determined by the version of the network protocol.

Cardano wallet backend

The Cardano wallet backend component supports the graphical user interface of the Daedalus wallet. It is used to send and receive ada. Behind the scenes, the wallet runs a full Cardano node. Unlike a light client wallet, it loads the entire shared ledger and validates all transactions, thus bolstering the security of the blockchain for everyone.

Wallet command line interface (CLI)

The wallet command line interface (CLI) supports interactions with the actual blockchain. More technically advanced users can use the CLI to work with a collection of tools for generating keys, constructing transactions, creating certificates, and performing other tasks. It is organized in a hierarchy of subcommands, and each level comes with its own built-in documentation of command syntax and options.

DB Sync

DB Sync is a component that follows the activities on the Cardano chain and stores blocks and transactions in PostgreSQL. As a ‘middleware’ component, it powers cardano-graphql. DB Sync stores blockchain data fetched from cardano-node in an intermediate database to enable higher-level interfaces for blockchain exploration. It also provides a number of queries to fetch Cardano blockchain data from the PostgreSQL, and supports services such as the Cardano Explorer, a graphical user interface that reflects the blockchain data in a straightforward way. Cardano GraphQL is a cross-platform API for the GraphQL data query language.

Rosetta API

The Rosetta application programming interface provides a high-level interface that aims to make the integration process easier, faster, and more reliable so that you can build once and integrate your blockchain everywhere. We have created a unique cardano-rosetta implementation to simplify the process of integration with Cardano. This interface is particularly useful for exchanges, since they can interact with the Cardano chain using the same interface that they use with other blockchains.

Looking forward

With smart contracts coming to Cardano soon, this means that Plutus, the native smart contract language, and other smart contract development languages like Marlowe for finance and Glow for DApps will be integrated into the Cardano stack. IO Global’s engineers will provide new and extended components to compile Plutus, Marlowe, and Glow scripts, submit them on-chain, and interact with them (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Plutus, Marlowe, Glow, Solidity, and IELE can all be used to write Cardano smart contracts

The Alonzo protocol upgrade will build on recent token upgrades and is being deployed to the mainnet via several testnets. Our Plutus partners and Plutus Pioneers will help us to test Plutus Core and will be part of the user acceptance phase before mainnet deployment. At this point we will officially add the Plutus and Marlowe components, such as both interpreters, to Cardano’s platform stack.

To keep up to date with the Alonzo rollout, please check our social channels and blog page.

Today sees the publication of the Essential Cardano list – a new GitHub repository which will help you to find out everything you need to know about Cardano. Whether you want to understand what Cardano is and who our partners are, learn about our mission and roadmap, or get stuck in and build on Cardano, this is the place to start.

Inspired by GitHub's well known Awesome lists, the Essential Cardano list provides an outline of our thriving ecosystem, as well as a comprehensive list of resources to help you learn more and get started. As it grows and expands, this new list aims to become the canonical source of material for Cardano, including both official resources and community-generated materials. We are now looking for our community members to help us extend it even more by contributing their suggestions.

A central location of essential resources

We want to have a central location for all things Cardano, to bring everything together and make it easy for people to find what they need. We have provided links to all official sites, channels, and resources, as well as to a collection of material such as explainers, guides, developer resources, glossaries, primers, tutorials, and much more.

On top of that, we have identified assets developed by the community which we think provide great value and complement our own content that we produce. Our aim is that our community will now help us to grow it out and make it even better.

Navigate the Cardano ecosystem

Essential Cardano provides an outline of all the core entities, partner groups, and facets that are part of our growing ecosystem to help orientate you to understand all the existing and new relationships that are being developed.

Initially, our focus has been on curating links and references to what’s going on within our growing ecosystem. As we update the list, or additions are made by community members, the list will also grow. We also plan to add additional visual elements including infographics and ecosystem maps over time. We have included an existing ecosystem map which is currently being refreshed by our team to reflect new relationships and partnerships we have formed recently. We plan to release a May version of this map very soon, so if you would like to help us get this up to date as soon as possible, go ahead and raise a pull request with your suggestion!

We have also included all the Project Catalyst startups that currently exist so you can understand some of what is being planned for future development.

How do I contribute?

We are looking for you to help us to grow out and evolve this essential Cardano list. This list is fully open source so if you know of new content that is being produced by members of the community, new relationships that are not included, or new innovations, please let us know so that we can add them all to this list and promote them. The easiest way to do this is to raise a pull request on the repository. We’ll evaluate these regularly and provide feedback within each pull request.

Growing this list

2021 is already a very active year for growth and engagement on Cardano. Following on from yesterday's exciting announcements about our vision for Africa, and with upcoming smart contracts and other new products on the way, we expect lots of new and exciting additions. We have already included some contributions from our active Plutus Pioneers course, which are very welcome, and we anticipate many more users, developers, and enterprises jumping on board in the coming months. We are happy to see the new Cardano Q & A Stack Exchange being developed and would encourage our community members to submit their questions to help build this out. Stay tuned for announcements and updates here on our blog, social channels, and within the Essential Cardano repository itself.