IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong) has teamed up with Wolfram in order to power Cardano (ADA), a major platform for building decentralized applications (dApps).
Cardano has notably joined Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) by integrating into Wolfram’s leading technology and knowledge base, Wolfram Alpha. However, this is just the beginning of an “exciting new partnership,” according to Eric Czuleger from IOHK.
Czuleger confirms that IOHK remains committed to making Cardano an “industry-leading blockchain project.” He added that this led them to collaborate or work closely with global leaders in technology, business and finance sectors. They’re now pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Wolfram.
Through the partnership, Cardano data will be “integrated into the Wolfram Alpha computational intelligence engine.” This reportedly places Cardano alongside Ethereum and the Bitcoin blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) networks as data to be included within Wolfram Alpha.
As noted in a blog post by the IOHK team:
“Wolfram and IOHK have historically enjoyed close ties, with Stephen Wolfram presenting at #Cardano2020 as well as at the IOHK Miami 2019 summit. The company [is focused on] pushing open source intelligence across … computation, mathematics, … blockchain technology. The inclusion of Cardano data into Wolfram Alpha is a landmark moment for IOHK.”
IOHK is focused on defining a scope of work that would “leverage Wolfram Alpha to provide Oracle services for Cardano.” As explained by the blockchain developers, Oracles are a key component of running smart contracts. They allow data to be “transported from a variety of sources into the blockchain.” This information can be election results, sports scores, currency exchange rates, and even statistical data, the IOHK team noted. They claim that this “greatly expands Cardano’s ability to offer new ways for developers to integrate advanced external information into their smart contacts.”
IOHK will also be working cooperatively with Wolfram Blockchain Labs, which offers DLT ecosystems the tools to assist in blockchain-enabled commerce and business innovation. The educational teams at IOHK and Wolfram will work together to offer Cardano-focused course material. This should encourage application developers and other users to join the Cardano ecosystem by promoting greater understanding of the platform.
As mentioned in the announcement:
“Integrating with Wolfram Alpha also boasts industry leading natural language processing capabilities. This makes Cardano’s information available to virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. Once integrated, users will be able to query the system to find information or solve computational problems as easily as asking their virtual assistant. We anticipate the initial phases of integration with Wolfram will occur Q2/Q3 of next year.”
At present, IOHK and Wolfram are developing a collaborative framework. They revealed that they’ll have more updates to share in 2021.