Recently, Cardano launched the long-awaited Vasil hard-fork, a major upgrade to the network, but it does not stop there. Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson revealed a few days ago what else is planned for the network. In the first quarter of 2023, for instance, Cardano Hydra will be implemented. With this, Cardano wants to compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

What is Cardano Hydra?

Recent major upgrades to the Cardano network have enabled new things, such as a second layer on top of Cardano's mainnet that boosts the scalability of the network. This is precisely what Cardano Hydra is going to be.

To take Cardano to a level where it can support the "real world", additional scalability is badly needed. Even though it is a relatively fast blockchain that can process around 250 transactions per second, much more capacity is needed to meet global demand should Cardano succeed. That is why Hydra is now the No 1 priority for Cardano.

Bitcoin and Ethereum both already have their own layer-2 solutions. According to Charles Hoskinson, Hydra can be compared to the Bitcoin Lightning Network or Polygon (MATIC) on the Ethereum blockchain. Hoskinson also makes it clear that he wants to compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum by proclaiming that Hydra will be much more effective:

" Hydra is everything Lightning would have wanted to be when it grows up."

Ultimately, it will be up to consumers whether this battle will succeed, because no matter how effective the technology may be, if no one uses it, it is worthless. At least the team behind Cardano continues to show guts despite the market conditions.