On Aug. 12, Cardano tweeted that the upgrade had been completed successfully at epoch 290, facilitating the creation and execution of smart contracts on the public blockchain for the first time. Despite celebrating the milestone, Cardano notes that it is still “early days for the project,” asserting that now is when "the mission truly begins” in a blog post published on the same day: Cardano has announced the completion of its Alonzo hard fork, ushering in its long-awaited smart contract functionality.