What is Cardano?
Cardano is a blockchain project based on the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, developed by Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) company founded by Charles Hoskinson (co-founder of Ethereum Classic project). Cardano was created with the goal of solving the scalability problems of “generation 2” blockchains.
The design principle behind the Cardano blockchain is security, scalability, and interoperability.
Roadmap
Cardano’s roadmap includes five phases: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho and Voltaire.
- Byron: to mark the launch of network and basic features like ADA token transfer
- Shelley: to implement 2020 hard fork to move closer to decentralization. The Cardano community will operate the nodes. ADA holders will run the stake pools.
- Goguen: to deploy smart contract deployment
- Basho: to optimize scalability and interoperability
- Voltaire: to launch a treasury system to solve governance issues
The Cardano project is jointly managed by many business units:
- IOHK is responsible for the development of the Cardano protocol
- Cardano Foundation is responsible for supervising the project
- EMURGO is responsible for business development and new user acquisition
How does Cardano work?
Cardano is designed as a “Generation 3” blockchain, to address the scalability issue of Generation 1 and 2 blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The Cardano network can process an average of 1,736 payment transactions per second (TPS) with the ability to handle up to 24,000 TPS.
To do this, Cardano uses a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism called Ouroboros. Ourroboros reduces energy costs much more than Proof of Work (PoW) mechanisms, while ensuring security.
The ability to combine hard forks is also a special feature of Cardano, allowing hard forks to be implemented without disrupting or restarting the blockchain.
Cardano’s Key features
The idea of the Cardano project is based on intensive academic research by a team of engineers, mathematicians, scientists and business experts. Therefore, behind the strong points of Cardano is a whole trove of academic and scientific philosophy equivalent to 90 pages of whitepaper.
In addition to a well-designed development plan, the Cardano network aims to ensure three factors of security, interoperability and scalability.
With VISA as its main competitor and hardware limitations as its driving force, Cardano has every reason to be a breakthrough in the fintech field when fully matured.
ADA Token
First released in 2017, ADA is the cryptocurrency of the Cardano platform, used for the following purposes:
- Paying block rewards to network participants (nodes) through Staking
- Staking ADA to share block rewards with node
- Payment of transaction fees in the Cardano network
- Medium of currency exchange
Specifications
- Ticker: ADA
- Blockchain: Cardano
- Total supply: 45,000,000,000
- Circulating supply: 33,117,618,880
Token Allocation
45,000,000,000 ADA tokens are distributed as follows:
- 57.6% sold to the market via ICO
- 11.5% held by IOHK, Cardano Foundation and Emurgo
- 30.9% used to pay staking rewards
ADA token price today
How to buy ADA
Cardano (ADA) has been listed on Attlas Exchange.
Traders can easily and securely buy ADA with lowest fees on Attlas Exchange.
Step 1: Download the app and register an account
Step 2: Select Market on the toolbar at the main screen
Step 3: Select Spot
Step 4: Find ADA
Step 5: Select Buy
Summary
This article is an overview of Cardano (ADA), not a financial advise.
Users are advised to do their own research before making any trading decisions.