Crypto Investor’s Guide: Cardano Edition

History

Cardano is a blockchain which runs the Ada cryptocurrency. Cardano was released in 2017 and was created by Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK). Its development was led by a man named Charles Hoskinson. Before working on Cardano, Hoskinson worked on a number of other high profile cryptocurrency projects such as Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and BitShares.

Like other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and NEO, Cardano is designed to run decentralized applications, smart contracts, side chains, and various other things such as multi-party computation programs. Despite only being in existence for about a year or so, Cardano is currently the 9th largest cryptocurrency by overall market capitalization.

Also like Ethereum, Cardano began its existence as an ICO. This separates it from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which did not start out as ICOs.

Technology

Cardano uses a proof-of-stake algorithm called Ouroboros instead of a proof-of-work one. Ada transactions are validated with this algorithm. The so called, “slot leaders” are the people who validate the transactions. Slot leaders are people who already own Ada. So, anyone who purchases and holds Ada can technically become a slot leader if they choose to.

The Cardano blockchain has is multi-layered which makes it easier for updates to be implemented via soft forks. So, Cardano is advanced when it comes to being able to make changes and updates. It can be much harder to do these things on older blockchains. Cardano was specifically designed to be scalable, adjustable, and flexible. It was created to resolve a lot of the inefficiencies of other blockchains.

It is also designed to be a competitor to Ethereum, and has so far proven that it is capable of fulfilling this role. However, it has a long way to go before it can catch up to Ethereum in terms of market cap and popularity, even if it does have advanced technology.

Projections

Decentralized applications and smart contracts are both on the rise. So, the fact that Cardano has been precisely designed to facilitate these things in the most efficient way possible is very encouraging for it. However, it not only has to compete with Ethereum for smart contract and DApp platform domination, but it also has to compete with NEO and a number of other top cryptocurrency platforms.

So, it is not a given that Cardano will be able to stay in the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by overall market cap for the long-term. It is doing well right now, however, and the crypto market large appears to be back on the upswing. So, Cardano could be a savvy investment right now for investors who are looking into solid altcoins.