Cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks are in complete control of the people who participate in the network, meaning that everyone’s voice counts. This is often a good decision, but sometimes people that use the network or founders of the same one do not agree, and new networks get made with different visions of the future. This is how Cardano, with its native currency ADA, was created.
Cardano is a programmable blockchain much like Ethereum, allowing users to build different kinds of applications using its blockchain technology.
Cardano is one of the first blockchain networks to use a different consensus mechanism for securing the network. Bitcoin and Ethereum users use their computational power to secure the network and get rewards in the process called “mining.”
On the other hand, Cardano uses a process called “staking.” Staking is a process where people deposit their ADA tokens to a pool that secures the network, and they get passive income as a reward for doing that.
Cardano is also one of the first networks to increase the transaction speed to triple digits numbers, to the rate of 250 transactions per second.
You can use your ADA tokens in the following ways:
At the time of writing (May 16th, 2022), ADA’s price is $0.56. The current Market Cap ranking is #7, with a market cap of $18.8B.
ADA hit its all-time high price of $3 in the April of last year, a significant gain from its price at the start of the year, which was $0.17. After that, the price has reduced slowly to sub $1 prices, and the market correction of 2022 has kept it there.
ADA has averaged a 173.6% year-on-year return since it was created.
ADA has a max supply of 45B tokens, with 33.8B currently in circulation.
The initial token distribution went as follows:
Cardano, labeled as an Ethereum killer, has attracted a significant demand due to its technical differences and high supply availability.
The primary way people buy their ADA is through centralized exchanges because they offer the ability to purchase them with credit\debit cards, which most people prefer.
Although significantly more complicated, the second way is through decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. Decentralized exchanges usually require users to already have some cryptocurrencies in their wallets to buy other cryptos.
Finally, it can be purchased easily through a broker app such as our Veli App, where you can get your hands on some ADA in just a few taps on the screen.
Cardano’s team consists of many scientists, developers, and engineers that maintain and further upgrade the network. The core team comprises the non-profit Cardano Foundation and two companies that work for them under contract, Emurgo, and IOHK. These companies help them in their work on the network. The founder of the Cardano Foundation is Charles Hoskinson, former co-founder of Ethereum.
Roadmap of Cardano is split into five eras, each representing a set of functionalities that will be added to the network in a given time. These are:
Cardano is currently in its third phase, the Goguen Era, where they introduced Smart Contracts. People can now start creating decentralized applications.
Cardano has attracted a significant community around itself over the years. They currently count over 1.3M followers on Twitter and over 100K members on their official Telegram channel. They are also present on all other popular social media websites.
Cardano Foundation has raised $62.2M in funding over six rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 1, 2018, from an Initial Coin Offering round. Cardano was backed by MKT, James Sowers, and Julian Sarokin.
Cardano has not faced any legal issues for now.
Cardano has seen an increased network activity over the past few years. Here are some numbers to help us illustrate that.
Cardano’s main competitors are Ethereum and BNB, followed closely by Solana and Avalanche. Let us see why and how are Ethereum, BNB, and Cardano competing.
Ethereum is the world’s first programmable blockchain. The main difference between Cardano and Ethereum is that Cardano is taking a different approach to blockchain technology and thus making it much faster than the current version of Ethereum.
BNB is also a programmable blockchain created by Binance. It is slower than Cardano, and most apps built on BNB are focused on Binance exchange products. Also, it is more centralized than both Cardano and Ethereum.
Cardano | Ethereum | BNB | |
Transactions per second | 250 | 15 | 55-60 |
Time needed to confirm a transaction | 5-10min | 6 min | <5s |
Average transaction fee | 0.12$ | 15$ | 0.31$ |
Market cap | $35.68b | $310b | $60b |
Circulation supply | 75% | No limit on the number of tokens | 98.89% |
Total number of wallet addresses | 3.5m | 150.6m | 155.6m |
Total number of daily active users | 136.8k | 509k | 1.2m |
Launch date | 2017 | 2015 | 2017 |
Average growth rate | 172.50% | 178.20% | 211.40% |
As with any other asset class, there are risks involved when it comes to investing. Since there are many kinds of cryptocurrencies, risks can be grouped into two categories – general risks that apply when investing in cryptocurrencies and risks that only apply to specific assets.
We have prepared a guide that addresses general cryptocurrency investing risks and offers tips on how to mitigate them, while risks that only apply to specific assets are addressed directly in the coin guides such as this one.
Website: https://cardano.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cardano
Telegram: https://t.me/CardanoAnnouncements
Cardano, dubbed by the community as the “Ethereum Killer,” is one of the most advanced blockchain networks competing against Ethereum. Founded by Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Ethereum, it has seen explosive growth in technology and the price of its native token, ADA. It attracted the attention of several investors and backers, raising $62.2M over six investment rounds.
Having recently done an update to the network, allowing users to use Smart Contracts and build apps using its technology, we will have to wait and see if the developer community will expand like its regular community that counts over 1.5M members across popular social media channels.
The roadmap of Cardano still has two phases to go, so there is still a lot to look out for in this exciting project.
