• A joint Cardano foundation and IOG team have scheduled the Vasil upgrade for September 22.
• Cardano foundation and Georgia’s national wine agency will partner to create a Cardano-built project to track the quality of Georgian wine.

Over the weekend, a joint team of the Cardano foundation and IOG team submitted an updated proposal to the Cardano chain. The proposal suggested September 22, 2022, as the commencement date for the Vasil upgrade. The news was part of an update on the Vasil upgrade via the official IOG Twitter channel.

Vasil Update: This weekend, a joint @CardanoStiftung & IOG team successfully submitted an update proposal to the chain, setting the #Vasil upgrade in motion for 22nd September.

Thanks to all the technical community for their support over past months in getting us to here.🙌

1/3 pic.twitter.com/I1auhX5goH

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) September 18, 2022

Apart from a new Plutus cost model, the Vasil upgrade will include collateral outputs, reference scripts, inline datums, and node support for reference inputs. Developers can access and utilize these new functionalities on the mainnet one epoch after the upgrade (September 27). Combining these functionalities will boost Cardano’s scalability, performance, and functionality.

Cardano Foundation wants to improve Georgia’s wine reputation

Meanwhile, the Cardano foundation has announced that it will partner with Georgia’s National Wine Agency, Scantrust, and the Boluisi wine-makers association to develop a Cardano-built solution to track the quality and genuineness of Georgian wines. The four partners will contribute to establishing this solution aimed at strengthening Georgia’s reputation as a premium wine producer globally.

Cardano foundation’s vice president of engineering, Mel McCann, commented that this partnership would create a cost-effective and flexible traceable certification system to ensure authenticity and clarity for customers and wineries from harvest point to consumption point. Under the partnership terms, the Cardano foundation will support individual wineries by developing a shared, scalable and cost-effective platform for winemakers to boost their customer engagement. The foundation will launch a pilot phase of the program in the Boluisi region, which will serve the local and export markets.

The test phase will also involve harvesting up to 100,000 wine bottles this autumn and bottling them by spring 2023. These bottles will contain a particular label with a secure and unique QR code. Thus, customers can confirm the genuineness of the products and learn about their history. Using the Cardano blockchain, the National Wine Agency will create a verifiable, public record from current wine certification data, particularly for wine intended for the international market.

Hoskinson speaks about blockchain technology power at a congress

While speaking at a hearing with members of the subcommittee and congressional staffers, Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson, spoke about blockchain technology, its history, and its universal applications. Hoskinson noted that the power of blockchain technology lies in its universality and permissionless model for innovation. He explained that his company (Input Output Global, IOG) has never had to pay a royalty, file a patent application, or acquire a license to operate its business in any part of the world, including countries as far as Ethiopia and Mongolia.

The Cardano founder also remarked that categories-based regulation segregated to the borders of specific jurisdictions and depends on centralized actors for reporting is unlikely to be effective. He suggested that the best solution to regulation issues is to decide what risks to guard against, what fundamental rights consumers should have, and how to use new tools for the greatest possible good.

Cardano’s native token, ADA, would benefit from all these positive developments on the Cardano blockchain and community. It currently trades at $0.445 and is up 2.48 percent in the last 24 hours, according to our data.