On July 3, Cronos, a Web3 blockchain supported by Crypto.com, completed a major upgrade to its EVM mainnet. The update reduces block time from about 5.6 seconds to under 1 second, significantly improving the speed and responsiveness of the network.
With this upgrade, Cronos enters the sub-second block time range, positioning itself among the ten fastest blockchains for on-chain finality. The faster network is expected to support more efficient decentralized applications, particularly in areas like DeFi, payments, and AI.
The performance improvement is possible due to recent scalability features, including BlockSTM, a parallel transaction execution engine introduced in the Pallene upgrade. This allows multiple transactions to be processed at the same time, boosting throughput and lowering latency.
Cronos has continued expanding into real-world use cases. In partnership with Crypto.com, it became the first blockchain to support direct crypto funding of prepaid cards. A feature called Auto-Harvest lets users automatically convert DeFi rewards into fiat for card top-ups. These developments aim to improve user experience, support high-frequency blockchain applications, and connect on-chain activity with everyday financial tools.
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