The Alonzo testnet, which will bring smart contracts to the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, could go live as soon as April, Charles Hoskinson, CEO of the network's developer IOHK, revealed during the Cardano360 virtual conference yesterday. Hoskinson claimed that the testnet would launch at the end of April or in early May. "For the first time ever, publicly, people will be able to write smart contracts and deploy them on Cardano," he said.

CARDANO SMART CONTRACTS: On tonight's #Cardano360 we shared the rollout plan for #smartcontracts on #Cardano. Here's more on the #Alonzo roadmap from @IOHK_Charles. We'll bring you more clips from the show throughout the week ahead, so stay tuned @Cardano 👍 pic.twitter.com/q2bWK1TZQx

— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) March 25, 2021

Per the revealed rollout plan, the Alonzo upgrade will come in the form of a hard fork this spring. Initially, smart contracts will be available for testing purposes only, with the full mainnet launch slated for August.