The Cardano blockchain has marked the completion of its latest Valentine upgrade, that brings a bunch of network improvements. The eco-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain announced the development on February 14, Valentine’s Day. The upgrade is now live on the Cardano mainnet and will expand the cross-chain interoperability for developers as well as for the holders of its native ADA token. The upgrade also brings along security upgrades to the Cardano ecosystem.

The Valentine upgrade was discussed within Cardano validators around a month ago and the proposal was passed with majority validators voting in favour.

The aim is to make the blockchain suitable and advanced enough to host decentralised finance (DeFi) apps with an expanded list of cross-chain functionalities.

The development also improves Cardano’s ross-chain dApp platform called Plutus. “Interoperability is key for blockchain growth. As more DApps are built on Cardano, it is essential that they are not siloed to just one ecosystem, enabling users to interact with different blockchains and access a wider range of services,” Cardano developer said in a tweet.

Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson led the development of Cardano back in 2015. The blockchain released in 2017 and soon grew to become a popular, green choice among developers.

Following the development, Cardano’s AOA token grew by around two percent to trade at $0.384 (roughly Rs. 30), showed the crypto price tracker by Gadgets 360.

Cardano’s Valentine upgrade is the first blockchain upgrade to have made it to the headlines in 2023.

The Ethereum blockchain, that upgraded to a greener version called the Merge last year, is next in line to undergo another transition.

In March, Ethereum is expected to complete its Shanghai upgrade, that will allow Ethereum validators to finally withdraw the assets that they have staked on the blockchain. It is estimated that $22.38 billion (roughly Rs. 1,82,520 crore) worth of Ether tokens are currently staked on the blockchain.