What is Cardano (ADA)?

Cryptocurrency, like fiat, is used as a medium of exchange but unlike the latter, it is digital with no physical existence.

Named after an outstanding scientist of the Renaissance era Gerolamo Cardano, Cardano is a smart contract platform, just like Ethereum, which has proved to be a milestone in the crypto space.

An idea first conceived by Charles Hoskinson, former CEO and founder of Ethereum, Cardano is the fruition from the synergy of Cardano Foundation based in Switzerland, Emurgo Company and the Input-Output Hong Kong company (IOHK).

Emurgo assists with technological solutions, investing, and developing start-ups and commercial ventures on the Cardano blockchain, while IOHK engages in the research and development of the platform.

What is Cardano

Cardano is a cryptocurrency platform with its native currency called “ADA,” with total supply limit of 25,927,070,538 tokens. It currently trades at $0.205, with a market cap of $5,326,975,913 sitting at the 8th position in the crypto market according to CoinMarketCap.  The Cardano network was built from scratch with the aim of facilitating digital payments that adhere to government regulation. Cardano, unlike most projects in the crypto ecosystem, is fully funded by its development team.

Cardano is a research-driven cryptocurrency platform can figuratively be viewed as the Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum rolled into a single platform. It provides the outstanding innovation of the Bitcoin which is the decentralization of transactions, Litecoin‘s fast and cheap transaction processing, and the Ethereum smart contract and scalability features.

It is the first scientific and peer-to-peer research driven blockchain technology developed by a handful of scientist and software engineers. The Cardano Foundation is tasked with the responsibility of supporting Cardano users and assisting authorities concerned with commercial and regulatory issues.

History of Cardano

Charles Hoskinson, a former CEO of Ethereum, and Jeremy Wood former head of operations of Ethereum both working together at Ethereum joined forces to start IOHK company with the aim of developing blockchain solutions patronized by government agencies, institutions, and enterprises.

In 2015, IOHK was approached by a company intending to establish a blockchain, with outstanding reliability and security.   After years of research, Cardano was launched on 29 September 2017.

Its development was divided into phases, with each stage recording significant developments compared to the previous phase. The first phase, Byron, features stabilization and tweaking of the blockchain. The second phase is the Shelley phase, featuring decentralized and independent blockchain platform.  The third is the Goguen phase, incorporating the smart contract feature into the blockchain. Then the Basho, which marks performance improvements, and the Voltaire phase which brings treasury system and governance on board.

How does Cardano work?

The Cardano blockchain which is the first cryptocurrency to be built based on scientific philosophy boasts of notable Universities like the University of Edinburgh and Tokyo Institute of Technology playing essential roles in its development. Its proof of stake algorithm called Ouroboros ensures the mining of its Ada tokens.

Doing this at a relatively low electricity cost compared to proof of work algorithm that bitcoin uses. The Ouroboros proof of stake resolved the security problems associated with an earlier proof of stake algorithm thereby providing security assurance like the proof of work.

Miners are concerned about the electricity cost of mining tokens because the cheaper the cost, the more profitable the venture is and the Ouroboros helps miners to achieve this goal

The blockchain offers scalability – increased processing time, good networking system, and data scaling. It is built in layers allowing for flexibility and intensive upgrades, balancing users’ privacy need with regulators’ regulation needs.

Benefits of Cardano

Efficiency: Its proof-of-stake algorithm gives miners the ability to mine token at a cheaper cost.

Scalability: Increase in processing time of transactions.

Smart Contract: Allows users conduct conflict-free transactions without the interference of third parties.

Data Scaling: The blockchain helps users save their data space by allowing them to keep only relevant transaction details.

Potential improvements: It is highly flexible as such creating room for intensive development.

Interoperability: With Cardano, there is a communication between blockchains to solve legal issues if the need arises.

The Cardano network can also serve as a platform for financial applications.

Where to buy Ada coin

The Ada coin cannot be purchased with fiat currency. You can only get Ada by exchanging other digital currencies like the Bitcoin and Ethereum from an exchange like Coinbase or Gdax and then transfer it to Binance or Bittrex

How to Store Ada coin

Ada coin can be stored only on the Daedalus wallet which is available for Windows users and Mac OS.

Conclusion

Cardano among cryptocurrencies proves to stand out due to its excellent features. It is still a prospect for greater improvement, thanks to its layer architecture design and scientific philosophy. It is to be integrated with Ledger Nano S shortly for storage purposes. It uses a unique Block Explorer which aids viewing of transaction details like date of a transaction, time, and public address of the sender.