The founder and CEO of Emurgo said that decentralized identity and layer 2 solutions are some of the “gaps” in Cardano that the Emurgo team is working hard to fill.
Cointelegraph magazine editor Andrew Fenton spoke with Ken Kodama, founder and CEO of Emurgo, one of the three entities that govern Cardano. Kodama talked about shifting their current approach to a venture studio model to fill the 21 categories they believe are “missing in Cardano” compared to other leading blockchains.
Kodama says there are two key ways to fill this gap. They can either build the solution themselves or invest in it. He explained:
“For these 21 categories, we either build it ourselves or invest. We host hackathons or provide grants to incentivize Cardano builders to build and fill gaps. So that’s what we need to focus on, from where we are today to the model Shift to a venture studio model.”
While Kodama didn’t list all 21 categories they’re looking to fill, the executive highlighted a few. This includes decentralized identity (DID) and Layer 2 sidechains for enterprise adoption.
Emurgo CEO said decentralized identity is an important component embedded in blockchain protocols. “We don’t see too many DID applications being built on Cardano. So, that’s the first gap, or the main gap, that we need to fill,” he said.
In addition to DID, Kodama also mentioned that while Cardano has a scaling solution called Hydra, they are also considering incorporating a layer 2 solution. The executive said that there is “a really vibrant layer 2 ecosystem being built” in other blockchains that they “don’t really see in Cardano.” Kodama noted that this is one of the things they will be working on to improve the ecosystem.
In addition to decentralized ID and layer 2 solutions, the executive also mentioned that they are working on zero-knowledge aggregation and optimistic aggregation. According to Kodama, they are looking to invest in these technologies and have also hosted hackathons focused on these topics.
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Of the 21 categories they identified, the executive highlighted one “burning issue” that is hindering adoption: developer experience. The executive recognized that in order to build in Cardano, it was necessary for developers to understand the programming languages Haskell and Plutus.
Kodama said that the number of developers familiar with these languages is “fairly low,” which is why they are supporting Aiken, a toolkit and a new programming language for developing smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain.
“The applicability of Aiken and other programming languages is very important in expanding the number of builders who can build on top of Cardano. We have been educating builders to code in Haskell and Plutus. We have over 2,000 graduates. However , this is not enough.”
The executive stated that they have high hopes for Aiken and any other programming language that can be embedded in Cardano so that developers can use different languages to make smart contracts on the platform.
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