Goguen is Cardano’s smart contract platform for building a global social and financial operating system.

Currently with Shelley, developers can already build web/mobile frontends (e.g. wallets), integrate with payment gateways and build apps that transact with Cardano (e.g. games).

Moving on to Goguen, Cardano will be implementing multi-asset ledger, Plutus applications and Marlowe contracts.

Multi-asset Ledger

You will be able to define, forge and transfer your own tokens on Cardano, and this does not require you to invoke a smart contract to make transfers or maintain balances, unlike say DAI on Ethereum. Not only is there no cost or performance penalties involved in handling custom tokens, users also inherit the security model of the Cardano blockchain.

You will have the ability to view your transactions and balances on a Cardano wallet and explorer, and you can use a simple graphical user interface for issuing assets on Cardano.

Even before smart contract deployment, you can already do many things using the native multi-asset ledger, namely issue utility tokens and branded currencies (e.g. used in gaming), and run loyalty and reward programs. With smart contracts, you can operate collectibles, crowdfunding and auctions.

Plutus Applications

For Plutus, Cardano is splitting the release into two phases,  namely Plutus Foundation and Plutus Application Framework.

Plutus Foundation, the first phase, enables smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain. With this, we can build Escrow-based DEX, ICO with vesting periods, payment channels, centralized stablecoins and traceability solutions.

In phase two, the Plutus Application Framework will continue to improve developer experiences, by allowing them to focus more on specific business logic for their applications. The use cases here are lending and microfinance, stablecoins and derivatives, tokenized securities and assets, identity management, and voting systems.

Potential upgrades to the Application Framework will add functionalities such as libraries for building oracles and decentralized identities, and managing regulated assets (security tokens).

An application store can also be built as a way to publish and distribute applications and updates.

Marlowe Contracts

Marlowe is a domain-specific language (DSL) based upon the Plutus platform and it allows domain experts to build financial contracts without having to first master a difficult programming language.

Marlowe utilizes visual programming tools (lego-like blocks) in an online development environment to implement standard financial instruments (including the ACTUS standards).

Hence, Marlowe is an easy-to-use smart contracts development platform optimized for finance. It is a fast track for finance experts and finance engineers to build smart contracts with blockchain technology. It is also a prototype DSL for similar languages in insurance, supply chain and legal.

See below for the Goguen rollout plan.