Cardano is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in a market of more than 10,000 crypto coins. The cryptocurrency is called Cardano, while the individual unit is called ADA.

What is Cardano?

Cardano is a decentralized platform that aims to deliver advanced features such as fast and direct transactions to the blockchain community. As a direct competitor to Ethereum, this blockchain-based platform features a unique layered structure and uses the ADA digital fund that you can transfer or receive. The team behind Cardano designed this project to overcome the blockchain limitations in terms of scaling and design. The developers took inspiration from the peer-reviewed science world, which influenced the way Cardano works.

Cardano was created by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum, another popular cryptocurrency, and it runs on a decentralized public ledger using blockchain technology. Blockchain manages and tracks the cryptocurrency, recording and ordering every transaction that occurs using it, like an endless receipt

The native coin of Cardano is called ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, a mathematician who wrote the first machine algorithm in the 1840s.

Like Bitcoin, ADA can be used as a medium of exchange, however, its most common use cases at this point are as a token for governance and as a staking asset, which is central to Cardano’s proof-of-stake system.

The proof-of-stake protocol is thought to be more efficient compared to the proof-of-work protocol, as you shall see later in this article.

What does Cardano do?

Cardano enables several different features on its platform:

Currency: With a cryptocurrency wallet, you can send and receive Cardano or transfer it in exchange for goods and services.
Smart contracts: Cardano enables smart contracts, which are contracts that automatically self-execute when the contract’s conditions are fulfilled.
Decentralized finance: Cardano enables people to skip the middleman, such as banks and other financial institutions, to transact directly and on a permission-less basis with other individuals or entities.
Digital apps: As part of decentralized finance, Cardano can enable lending, trading, asset management, insurance and other typical financial services.

So it’s useful to think of Cardano as a token that powers various financial services rather than merely as currency, though that is one of its functions, too.

How to buy Cardano?

Cardano is a widely circulated cryptocurrency, so you have several options if you choose to buy it. A common way to purchase cryptocurrency is on a centralized exchange.

Decentralized exchanges, where cryptocurrency is traded in peer-to-peer exchanges, are also an option that can carry lower costs. But these generally require more technical expertise and may be difficult for new users to navigate.

Of the platforms reviewed by NerdWallet, seven carry Cardano: Binance.us, Coinmama, Crypto.com, Kraken, SoFi, and Webull.

ADA Price Statistics

ADA Cardano has traded in line with much of the cryptocurrency industry over the past several years. During the bull market of late 2017 and early 2018, the price of ADA shot up from $0.03 to $1.20, valuing the project at close to $32 billion. While early investors were afforded an immediate 3,900% return, this would be short-lived. As you can see in the Cardano chart, the price of Cardano began to steadily decline over the next several years.

While the price of Cardano has declined back below $1, it is believed that if the project can perform in the ways it has promised, the value of ADA should have no problem rising.

In addition to its price, it is important to note that ADA has a fixed monetary policy, meaning, there will only ever be 45 billion ADA created. Once that number is reached, no more cardano crypto will ever be created. Cardano sold 25,927,070,538 ADA during its initial sale, with the remaining about 19 billion ADA set to be released through the blockchain as rewards for mining blocks. The remaining ADA is set to be distributed in staking rewards through generated blocks on the Cardano blockchain.

Because there is only a set number of ADA that will be in existence, in theory, there will be an increasing demand for the coin. This deflationary monetary model is expected to create demand for ADA in the future.

Is Cardano a good investment?

Cryptocurrencies have historically been prone to rapid shifts in value, and Cardano is no exception. Like many cryptocurrencies, the price of Cardano has been very volatile. While it’s down from its recent highs, as are many other crypto coins, it has still likely made many who have stuck with it significant money, especially if they bought and held from its debut in 2017. Instead of looking at recent gains or losses, it’s important to understand exactly what you’re buying.

The performance of Cardano in 2021 has been nothing short of impressive after the coin made tremendous gains of over 200%. After Elon Musk’s recent statement on the environmental impacts of Bitcoin, Cardano braved the odds to reach an all-time high of $2.46 can see a dip, but is it nothing like a dip Bitcoin or ETC, for example, had. The decentralization of the project and the functionalities it offers has earned Cardano an enviable position in the crypto-ecosystem.

Cardano has earned the trust of the entire cryptocurrency community largely through the wide range of applicability that it offers to users, its decentralization, environmental friendliness, and price run so far. At its core, it is a proof-of-stake blockchain designed for change-makers and innovators. By utilizing a proof-of-stake mechanism, Cardano uses a fraction of the energy consumed by Bitcoin as the percentage of coins held by the miner is given more value than the processing power. Cardano’s biggest advantage is being energy efficient.

It has been deployed in a wide range of sectors, giving credence to the wide applicability. Aside from being used by enterprises to track products, Cardano has also been deployed by Ethiopia’s educational sector to track the academic performance of over 5 million students in the country.

Conclusion and analysis

Cardano still has a long way to go to become the acclaimed top performant Blockchain platform in the crypto space. However, with the team and the grand scheme behind the platform, it will be interesting to see how the platform revolutionizes the crypto space and possibly the world, one day.

Find more information about Cardano:

Website: https://t.me/CardanoAnnouncements

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cardano

Telegram: https://twitter.com/Cardano

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas about the project, please email [email protected].

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary, and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

Elise

Coincu Ventures