Cardano: Invest Now Or Miss Out?

Cardano is a blockchain project with over 70% of its total currency, ADA, staked for network validation. It was founded by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, and is currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Cardano is a good investment option for short-term investors, as it is expected to touch the $3 threshold by the end of 2021. It is also predicted to reach $10 in the next five years, making it a good long-term investment as well. However, it is important to remember that cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and investors should carefully consider their financial goals and conduct thorough research before investing.

Cardano's energy efficiency

The proof-of-stake protocol used by Cardano requires significantly less computing power and energy than the proof-of-work protocol used by Bitcoin. Cardano's Ouroboros protocol is designed to facilitate the creation and growth of distributed, permissionless networks capable of sustainably supporting new markets.

Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson

Cardano is a blockchain platform centred on Ouroboros, a pioneering proof-of-stake protocol that sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies that rely on proof-of-work protocols. Cardano's native token is ADA, named after mathematician Ada Lovelace.

Cardano was founded by Charles Hoskinson, an American entrepreneur and mathematician. Hoskinson is also a co-founder of Ethereum, another blockchain platform. However, he left the Ethereum project due to a dispute with fellow co-founder Vitalik Buterin over the project's commercial direction. Hoskinson wanted to lead Ethereum in a more commercial, venture-backed direction, while Buterin and the other founders wanted to take a less business-centred, nonprofit approach.

After leaving Ethereum, Hoskinson decided to create his own cryptocurrency project, Cardano, which would retain many of Ethereum's attractive features while addressing some of its weaknesses. Cardano offers robust smart contracts and is designed to be energy-efficient and support fast transactions with minimal fees.

Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur with a background in analytic number theory and cryptography. He has founded three cryptocurrency-related startups and has experience in both the public and private sectors. He is also involved in projects focused on educating people about cryptocurrency and making cryptographic tools more accessible to mainstream users.

In addition to his work in the cryptocurrency space, Hoskinson has been involved in various other endeavours. He has sponsored research focused on blockchain technology at several universities and has made notable donations to educational and scientific initiatives. He has also faced criticism for his use of a private jet, which was ranked among the top 15 biggest polluters in the US, contrasting with Cardano's "green" reputation.

Cardano vs. Ethereum

Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum (ETH) are two of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Both are "Layer 1" blockchain technologies, allowing developers to build decentralised applications (dApps) and self-executing smart contracts.

Ethereum

Ethereum is the older, more established, and more valuable cryptocurrency of the two. It is also the second-most valued cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. It is the first blockchain network that could handle smart contracts, which has helped boost its market share. Ethereum has a rich ecosystem, with an extensive developer community and supporters that include major companies. It is considered to be the safer investment of the two.

Cardano

Cardano, on the other hand, is a newer technology that is being rolled out more slowly and carefully. It is still in the early stages of developing its features and user base. Cardano is currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It is centred around Ouroboros, a pioneering proof-of-stake protocol that distinguishes it from other cryptocurrencies that rely on proof-of-work protocols. Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, is also a co-founder of Ethereum.

While Cardano and Ethereum have similar offerings, they differ in their approach to design. Cardano emphasizes a research-driven approach, aiming for academic rigor to propel the adoption of its technology. Ethereum, on the other hand, was built to be a kind of operating system for custom assets and programs.

Ethereum has a higher transaction volume, with approximately 1 million daily transactions compared to less than 100,000 on Cardano. It also has higher transaction fees. Cardano has lower costs and energy usage, and better potential for scaling. However, it has a smaller development team and slower growth than Ethereum.

Overall, Ethereum is the more established and safer investment, with a larger developer community and ecosystem. Cardano has strong fundamentals and momentum, and its research-driven approach could make it a good long-term investment. However, it still needs to gain more real-world utility and adoption before it can overtake Ethereum.

Cardano's price history

The Cardano Improvement Proposal 33, part of the Vasil hard fork, allows reference scripts to be attached to outputs, making the validation process more efficient and reducing transaction size. The number of Cardano wallets broke the three million milestone in February 2022, coinciding with an increase in smart contracts following the Alonzo Upgrade. Cardano surpassed the 1,000 smart contracts milestone on January 27, 2022. However, the network has struggled with implementing its smart contracts, and users have complained about the sluggish launch of its SundaeSwap decentralised exchange in January 2022.

As of July 2024, Cardano is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. Over the last year, Cardano's price is down 82.33%. The highest price of ADA in the last year was $2.19, and the lowest was $0.38. As of July 7, 2024, the live Cardano price is $0.366629, with a 24-hour trading volume of $273,761,917. Cardano is up 3.87% in the last 24 hours, with a market cap of $13,112,894,268 and a circulating supply of about 35,766,148,549 ADA coins.

Cardano's smart contracts

Smart contracts on Cardano are simple programs often referred to as validator scripts, in which users define custom logic. They are automatically executed by each Cardano node validating the transaction when the transaction attempts to move funds from the script's address. The address of each script is derived from the hash-sum of the compiled script.

Cardano introduced smart contract support in 2021. As a multi-functional environment, Cardano now supports the development and deployment of smart contracts using different programming languages. Here are some examples:

• Plutus — a purpose-built smart contract development and execution platform. Plutus contracts consist of parts that run on the blockchain (on-chain code) and parts that run on a user’s machine (off-chain or client code).
• Marlowe — a domain-specific language (DSL) for writing and executing financial contracts that allows building contracts visually as well as in more traditional code.
• Aiken - a language and toolchain for on-chain validator scripts only, favouring developer experience.
• OpShin - a programming language based on Python for generic smart contracts for Cardano.
• Plu-ts - Typescript-embedded smart contract programming language and a transaction creation library.

Frequently asked questions