<p>Cardano's Gougen era, which is the era that will enable what is generally understood as smart contract capabilities comparable to Ethereum's, consists of three major Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) events:</p>
<ol>
<li>Allegra – Transaction metadata capabilities</li>
<li>Mary – Native assets (the Cardano pendant to ERC tokens on Ethereum)</li>
<li>Alonzo – Smart contract capabilities</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-07T21:44:14.550Z
2021-06-07T21:44:14.550Z
Xiaofei
<p>The original <a href="https://roadmap.cardano.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Cardano roadmap</a> defines 5 main <em>Eras</em>: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho and Voltaire. Each of these include several milestones, usually in the form of a hard-fork that changes some of the underlying ledger rules in order to enable some new features and functionalities.</p>
<p>We are currently in the Goguen era. The transition from the Shelley era to the Mary era was enabled by the Mary hard-fork. But the main hard-fork that will bring smart-contract functionality to Cardano is Alonzo. There are a few other steps to get there, like a multi-stage testnet roll out, but essentially there should be only one single hard-fork involved.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T10:05:19.303Z
Yes but what will Alonzo achieve exactly?
Distic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T10:30:31.203Z
Alonzo will give programmable blockchain, by the way of smart contract functionality. It will provide Plutus language support to write smart contract.
raghu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T10:54:01.347Z
@raghu and so what remains to do to get to goguen era? I thought Goguen era was just that.
Distic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T13:23:11.440Z
The Goguen era is complete, only if smart contract (Alonzo) is in place. Smart Contract is still not in mainnet. We can only say that we are in full Goguen era.
raghu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T18:42:09.890Z
@raghu So you mean that Alonzo is the final step of Goguen era?
Distic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-04T07:23:07.417Z
@Distic that's what he meant, yes.
vaz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-04T09:02:18.943Z
@vaz But in your answer you wrote "there are a few other steps to get there", so if you could just elaborate a bit on what will be possible after Alonzo and what will remain to do, I would be able to accept your answer.
Distic
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-03T09:53:46.660Z
2021-06-03T09:53:46.660Z
vaz
<p>I have heard about the Alonzo update, but I was not able to understand exactly what this will change for cardano. It is said it is a step toward Goguen, but that is not very explicit. How many steps do remain to get there? What will it achieve?</p>

<development>
What is Alonzo?
# What is Alonzo?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-06-03)

I have heard about the Alonzo update, but I was not able to understand exactly what this will change for cardano. It is said it is a step toward Goguen, but that is not very explicit. How many steps do remain to get there? What will it achieve?

**Tags:** development

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-06-07. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Cardano's Gougen era, which is the era that will enable what is generally understood as smart contract capabilities comparable to Ethereum's, consists of three major Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) events:

1. Allegra – Transaction metadata capabilities
2. Mary – Native assets (the Cardano pendant to ERC tokens on Ethereum)
3. Alonzo – Smart contract capabilities


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-06-03. Score: 4

The original [Cardano roadmap](https://roadmap.cardano.org/) defines 5 main *Eras*: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho and Voltaire. Each of these include several milestones, usually in the form of a hard-fork that changes some of the underlying ledger rules in order to enable some new features and functionalities.

We are currently in the Goguen era. The transition from the Shelley era to the Mary era was enabled by the Mary hard-fork. But the main hard-fork that will bring smart-contract functionality to Cardano is Alonzo. There are a few other steps to get there, like a multi-stage testnet roll out, but essentially there should be only one single hard-fork involved.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yes but what will Alonzo achieve exactly?  
> **username_3**: Alonzo will give programmable blockchain, by the way of smart contract functionality. It will provide Plutus language support to write smart contract.  
> **username_0**: @raghu and so what remains to do to get to goguen era? I thought Goguen era was just that.  
> **username_3**: The Goguen era is complete, only if smart contract (Alonzo) is in place. Smart Contract is still not in mainnet. We can only say that we are in full Goguen era.  
> **username_0**: @raghu So you mean that Alonzo is the final step of Goguen era?  
> **username_2**: @Distic that's what he meant, yes.  
> **username_0**: @vaz But in your answer you wrote "there are a few other steps to get there", so if you could just elaborate a bit on what will be possible after Alonzo and what will remain to do, I would be able to accept your answer.  

---

