Right after reporting a severe talent shortfall for Haskell developers, 3air officially abandoned the Cardano blockchain for SKALE, an Ethereum-based network.
When 3air revealed that it would no longer be developing its platform on Cardano, the community was taken aback. Since announcing its departure from Cardano, the business has been in talks with a number of EVM-compatible networks about prospective partnerships and technology reviews.
According to Sandi Bitenc, CEO of 3air, the decision to abandon Cardano was based on many factors:
“While we fully believe in what Cardano represents, we are having a hard time finding talent who can develop 3air’s platform on Haskell. We have spent months actively hiring for senior Haskell developers to build on Cardano, but there is a massive talent shortage on the market. We found two entry-level part time developers. We also reached out to the development agency recommended by Cardano and they are great, but they are too busy and unable to deliver on our timeline.”
Talent shortfall in 3air
According to 3air CEO Sandi Bitenc, the competence for Haskell, Cardano’s core programming language, looks to be in limited supply. After months of intensively recruiting experienced Haskell engineers to work on Cardano, 3air was only able to hire two part-time entry-level workers, according to Bitenc. Despite reaching out to Cardano’s suggested development agencies, 3air was unable to find the skills it required.
According to the CEO, 3air’s developers would be able to start working on their development targets immediately after switching to SKALE. He also cited SKALE’s rapid transactions, minimal gas fees, and multichain capabilities as reasons for the protocol’s adoption, particularly in the context of decentralized apps.
After raising $26.75 million in investment over the preceding two years, SKALE launched the first phase of its mainnet in June 2020. The Ethereum-compatible network has moved its attention to Web3, nonfungible currencies, and decentralized applications, claiming to be truly decentralized.
Despite having one of the largest communities in crypto, Cardano’s delayed development has allowed other competitors in the smart contract area to enter the market. Other smart contract platforms have taken a more iterative approach to construct, testing, and launching their projects, but Cardano’s developers prioritize an academic approach to development, including following the peer review process.
Cardano’s use of Haskell, a highly academic programming language, has also been criticized for making the development process slower and more complicated. In November 2017, one such critique claimed that “very few programmers” were utilizing Haskell at the time.
Cardano has expanded its influence in regions like Africa, with its development arm, Input Output Hong Kong, collaborating with regional governments to boost educational attainment. By the middle of the decade, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts the continent will have onboarded 100 million additional DeFi users.
Taking Africa to high-speed Internet
The Western world and a lot of Asia have high-speed broadband internet, however, most African countries don’t. Most people who go online use mobile data, which can be pricey, slow and unreliable. Many people have 3 separate phones with data plans that they can use all month.
To get high-speed internet access on the African continent, the World Bank says it will take a decade and more than $100 million from governments and telecommunications investors.
3air uses new technology from its partner, K3 Telecom, to get around the current limitations. If you live in a 50-mile radius, you can get speeds of up to 1 Gbps wirelessly. 3air also has a blockchain-based platform that rewards token holders and people who help other people use the network.
In just a few months, people and businesses in African countries will be able to get high-speed broadband Internet, VoIP, and internet TV. This technology will make this happen.
SKALE promises internet security, faster development, and no end-user gas fee transactions
A few Dapps are already running on SKALE’s mainnet, and there are about 100 more in the Dapp innovator program that is working on getting them running. In this group, you’ll find social media sites, DEXes, and Play-to-Earn games to NFT networks. This is what 3air wants to do in the next few months. They want to build a platform for their users, token holders, and customers so they can launch smart contracts and their end-user solution on SKALE.
3air will be on the SKALE network when its token goes live. It will be open to the public from March 31st to April 7th, 2022.
What you should know about 3air
3air connects people and businesses in African cities to the rest of the world with help from a unique telecom infrastructure and a blockchain-based telecom/ISP platform. There is a simple to use blockchain platform that allows for digital identities, bankless payments, customer loyalty and referrals, community building, microloans, and IoT. It also allows for optics grade broadband connectivity through the air with IP telephony and digital TV
