What is Cardano?
Cardano is a decentralized blockchain platform built by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, in 2015. By 2017, Cardano was officially launched and successfully raised $60 million through an ICO.
Cardano envisions developing a blockchain network that allows multiple developers to build dApps and create a decentralized financial (DeFi) economy on Cardano.
The crypto market changes very rapidly, and since 2017, the market has witnessed the “replacement” of thousands of projects, large and small. However, Cardano not only remained stable but also reached the top #3 in cryptocurrency market capitalization, valued at up to $80 billion. What makes Cardano so special?
Project website interface: cardano.org
Key Features of Cardano
Cardano helps address three major issues of Blockchain:
- Scalability
- Interoperability
- Sustainability
Scalability
When mentioning scalability, people often think of transactions per second (TPS). However, for Cardano, scalability includes three factors:
- Transaction Per Second (TPS): Cardano uses the Ouroboros consensus algorithm, which is part of the Proof of Stake group.
- Network: To increase the bandwidth of the network, Cardano uses Recursive Inter-Network Architecture (RINA) technology to divide the network into many subnetworks, which can interact with each other if needed.
- Data Scaling: To reduce the data size of each transaction, Cardano is considering two solutions: Subscriptions and Sidechains.
Interoperability
Currently, there are many blockchain platforms, but these blockchains cannot communicate or interact with each other.
According to the roadmap, Cardano will have a solution for interoperability between different blockchains after the Goguen phase (which will be detailed below).
Sustainability
The sustainability of a blockchain project is very important. The challenge is how to balance the interests of miners/nodes and the project development organization so that the project can operate stably over the long term.
In this case, the Cardano Foundation will need a budget to develop Cardano after IOHK’s contract ends in 2020.
Therefore, Cardano is considering creating a reserve fund like Dash. This would involve collecting a portion of ADA when a new block is created.
Cardano vs. Ethereum Comparison
Both Cardano and Ethereum were established in 2015, but Ethereum has developed a larger number of dApps more quickly than Cardano.
This could be because Cardano took two years to prove its theories and is preparing to add smart contracts to the network during the Goguen phase.
However, Cardano has a transaction speed ten times faster than Ethereum, thanks to the use of the Ouroboros consensus algorithm.