The latest technological upgrade from Cardano (ADA -1.67%) is not going as planned, and some crypto investors have already started to sour on Cardano's prospects. The upgrade (known as the Vasil Hard Fork), was originally scheduled for the end of June, but was first pushed back to the end of July and now to sometime in August. The Vasil Hard Fork, named in honor of Bulgarian mathematician Vasil Dabov, promised to upgrade Cardano's network capacity and improve the functionality of smart contracts and decentralized applications. Thus, news of the delay is understandably concerning, and some investors who had started accumulating Cardano ahead of the planned upgrade have already started to sell off.
So, with investor sentiment starting to turn against Cardano, could now be a good time to buy? Admittedly, there is some risk involved, but buying Cardano now could end up being a brilliant move. Cardano has a long history of being careful with its technological upgrades, so you can be assured it will not attempt to rush any upgrade to market without knowing that everything works as planned. Moreover, Cardano is trading at $0.51 now, well below its all-time high of $3.10. At this bargain price, there is plenty of room for upside appreciation.
Game-changer or game-ender?
The Vasil hard fork was supposed to be a "game-changer" for Cardano, ushering in a new era of decentralized applications, smart contracts, and exciting development projects for the Cardano blockchain. For two years, Cardano has been under intense criticism for not having more activity on its blockchain. There was genuine euphoria in the Cardano community because the Vasil upgrade would essentially catch Cardano up with rival blockchains, especially Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), which pioneered the concepts of smart contracts and decentralized applications.
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With Ethereum slated to make a major technological upgrade of its own in September, the timing of the Cardano news has been particularly hard to swallow. At that very moment, it looked like Cardano was going to catch up to Ethereum; however, there are now concerns it might fall further behind.
If there is a silver lining in all of this, it is that Cardano is well known for taking its time with upgrades and fixes. This is very much a feature, not a bug, since Cardano takes a peer-reviewed, research-driven approach to all software changes. Every software change requires extensive testing, and all bugs are carefully reviewed. Sometimes, this takes time, especially with something as complicated as the Vasil hard fork.
In a brief video update on Aug. 1, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson compared the Vasil hard fork to a rocket launch. If even a single sensor fails during pre-launch checks, you have to pull the mission. The last thing that Cardano wants is the blockchain equivalent of a rocket exploding on a launch platform.
Trust in the track record
What should give you confidence as an investor is that Cardano already pulled off a similar (albeit less technologically complex) upgrade back in September and another back in May 2021. Those upgrades are what helped send Cardano to an all-time high. And that's why buying Cardano now could be so genius.
It really is a matter of "when" and not "if" the new Vasil hard fork takes place. As soon as it does, the price of Cardano might really take off. While previous upgrades to Cardano primarily focused on speed and efficiency, this upgrade is about introducing entirely new capabilities to the Cardano blockchain.
In many ways, the situation with Cardano has parallels to what's taking place now with Ethereum. People are excited about Ethereum's new tech upgrade (known as The Merge) and are eagerly accumulating Ethereum ahead of the news. This is arguably the biggest news in the crypto world right now. All anybody wants to talk about is The Merge and how it's going to change Ethereum forever.
The Ethereum news is so big that it's completely crowding out the news around Cardano. Most people probably don't even know that Cardano had a major tech upgrade in the works this summer. All the better for you as an investor because technological upgrades in the crypto world can be a great time to invest.
