The Cardano ecosystem team will unveil a software toolkit allowing developers to create custom sidechains, aimed at enhancing the ecosystem. This was declared on January 12th by Input Output Global (formerly known as Input Output Hong Kong), a blockchain engineering firm founded by Charles Hoskinson. The announcement came with the official technical documentation for the sidechain toolkit.

IOG developers have utilized the toolkit to build a public testnet for an EVM-compatible sidechain as a demonstration. Upon completion of the audit, the public will have the ability to deploy decentralized apps, design smart contracts, and transfer tokens between various test chains. The toolkit also gives sidechain creators the option to select their own consensus mechanism and customize other application-specific features.

A sidechain is a separate blockchain that operates alongside the main blockchain, known as the mainnet. Sidechains aim to enhance scalability while the mainnet focuses on decentralization and security. IOG envisions that the sidechain development will facilitate mass adoption in the Cardano ecosystem and anticipates the formation of multiple Cardano sidechains and partner chains shortly.

Hoskinson is eager to see the integration of partner chains, such as Solana, onto the Cardano platform. He recently mentioned in a December 10th Ask Me Anything session that Cardano could utilize Solana’s network speed while Solana would benefit from Cardano’s infrastructure and security.

As part of the “Basho phase,” the protocol will soon incorporate similar accounting styles to enhance interoperability within the Cardano ecosystem, as stated in the roadmap. This is not the first time IOG has integrated sidechain solutions into Cardano. In July, they built a simple EVM-compatible sidechain to initiate sidechain development.

In September, Cardano underwent a major hard fork, the Vasil upgrade, which was claimed to increase smart contract deployment efficiency and reduce the cost of running decentralized applications.