Cardano (ADA) – Everything That You Need To Know

Written by Adolph Obasogie - Reviewed by Coin Review Team

Published: May 9, 2018 | Last Updated: Mar 14, 2019

2024-10-10T06:15:39+00:00

What is Cardano?

Cardano is a distributed computing platform and ecosystem for decentralized applications.

The platform was created with the intention to solve all known problems of existing blockchain systems, most importantly scalability, interoperability, and flexibility. It was built from the ground with the focus on a scientific approach and based on peer-reviewed academic research.

Cardano aims to provide seamless and secure wealth transfer, advanced smart contract functionality and capability of hosting and operating even highly complex dapps.

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Some of its unique goals are:

Separation of accounting and computation into different layers
Peer-reviewed research
Acknowledging the need to account for multiple assets in the same ledger
Find a healthy middle ground for regulators to interact with commerce without compromising some core principles inherited from Bitcoin
Full compliance with regulatory bodies

Cardano uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. They developed their own pos-algorithm and named it Ouroboros. The source code of Cardano is written in Haskell and completely open-source and patent free.

Their approach is vastly different from similar projects, as they try to build something entirely new and flexible for future upgrades and are in constant dialogue with regulatory bodies to develop their network compliant with regulatory requirements.

The first native token of the Cardano blockchain is called ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician recognized as the first computer programmer. In the long term, Cardano is capable of hosting multiple tokens on their blockchain.

Founders and History

Cardano is the brainchild of Charles Hoskinson. The co-founder of Ethereum and Bitshares left the Ethereum project over disputes of further development and founded the company IOHK together with Jeremy Wood. This company is doing the active software development and is one of the three organizations developing and governing the Cardano ecosystem. One of the other is are the Cardano Foundation, a non-profit organization who is dedicated to support and work with regulatory authorities. Last but not least is Emurgo, who is actively working on incubating commercial ventures and business integration into Cardano’s blockchain ecosystem.

Cardanos token sale lasted almost two years and closed on 01 January 2017 with a funding of ~63 million $.

Cardano main net launched on Friday, 29 September 2017.

To find out insider news, before-the-public, I advise you to bookmark www.blockchainwhispers.com

Can Cardano be mined

No, as Cardano’s consensus mechanism is proof-of-stake. The tokens on the platform cannot be mined but staked.

What differs Cardano from other Cryptocurrencies?

Cardano has a fully funded development team and does not rely on voluntary work. And they are the first project of this scope that is entirely peer-reviewed and built with a scientific approach. Also, their software architecture is unique, Cardano separates accounting and computing in different layers. This layered architecture also benefits scalability, for example, Cardano has the opinion that “not everyone needs all data.” This approach increases efficiency, speed and transaction throughput. Their pos-algorithm Ouroboros is claimed to be the first pos-model to be peer-reviewed and accepted by the cryptography community at the International Cryptography Conference.

The Ouroboros protocol is a chain-based PoS protocol, where the producer of the next block is chosen randomly from a pool of stakeholders. The probability of being selected as a block producer increases proportionally to the size of the number of tokens one owns. Additionally, ADA holders are eligible to vote on protocol changes.

How much is Cardano worth today?

What is the total and the circulating supply?

The total supply of ADA is 31,112,483,745 and the circulating supply at the time of writing is 25,927,070,538. The maximum supply to ever exist is 45,000,000,000 ADA.

Where can you buy ADA?

You can buy ADA on several cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably Upbit, Binance, Bittrex, Huobi, and HitBTC.

Can ADA be sold for cash?

Yes, ADA can be exchanged against South Korean won (KWR) on the exchange Upbit.

Other fiat-pairings are not yet available at the moment.

Future Development

Cardano has ambitious plans, besides building their primary platform. They aim to integrate side chains, a virtual machine, a Cardano debit card and human-friendly addresses.

This project has a vast scope and is as ambitious as it gets.

Time will tell if all of this can be accomplished.

Verdict and Rating

6.5/10 Cardano is an exciting project from a technological point-of-view and has a very well thought-out and futuristic approach. However, if their pos-algorithm proves to be completely secure remains to be seen.

Proof-of-stake itself is not that well researched and tested as proof-of-work. If Cardano can realize their very ambitious project, I have no doubt they will be one of the leaders in the smart contract and dapp ecosystem space.

This remains to be seen. As for now, Cardano showed that they are a competent team and what this team delivered so far is impressive. From an investors viewpoint, it should be considered that the maximum supply is relatively high and the market cap is relatively high too, caused by anticipation of successful realization of the project. Time will tell if their promises hold true.

The first time I heard about Cardano was at Blockchain Whispers, a very informative crypto website, which recommended ADA as an investment opportunity at a very early stage. If you haven’t visited yet, I advise you to check it out at https://blockchainwhispers.com/premium/

6.5 / 10.0

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Disclaimer

The writer’s views are expressed as a personal opinion and are for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.