Cardano

One of the top cryptocurrencies Ada (ADA) is the native token of the Cardano platform, that aims to run financial applications, as well as decentralized applications (dapps) used by individuals and organizations.

What Is Cardano

Established in 2015, Cardano wants to provide a more balanced and sustainable ecosystem for crypto projects that not only meets the needs of its users in a more efficient way, but helps other systems integrate into this ecosystem, as well.

The platform itself consists of two layers, which should help the system to become more flexible and more easily maintained:

1) The Settlement Layer was launched in September 2017 and is a ledger to transfer value.

2) The Computation Layer will provide users with the means to execute smart contracts, the digital legal agreements that will underpin future commerce and business.

Communication between the two layers will be enabled through sidechains.

Another unique feature of Cardano is its own proof of stake algorithm called Ouroboros that helps nodes in the network to reach consensus. Cardano developers claim that the level of security demonstrated by Ouroboros compares to that of Bitcoin’s blockchain, which has never been compromised. However, Bitcoin is using energy-hungry proof of work protocol.

Cardano Developers

Currently, three organizations are helping to develop the platform. These are:

• The Cardano Foundation, responsible for the support the community of Cardano and work with authorities on regulatory and commercial matters.
• IOHK, a cryptocurrency research and development company, which holds the contract to develop the platform until 2020. It was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of the competing blockchain platform Ethereum, and Jeremy Wood.
• Emurgo, which invests in start-ups and assists commercial ventures to build on the Cardano blockchain.

Cardano Price

At the time of writing (October 2018), approximately 29 billion ADA coins are in circulation, with the total supply planned to be capped at 45 billion.

Cardano price went through the same wild roller coaster as many other cryptocurrencies in 2018. Its price peaked in January at USD 1.01 and dropped to USD 0.085 in October of the same year. Accordingly, Cardano market capitalization hit USD 2 billion in October, compared to USD 30 billion in January. Going forward, one needs to follow development of competing platforms such as Ethereum, as this might affect the price of ADA.

If you wonder how to acquire Cardano, first you need to download a wallet that supports ADA cryptocurrency. At the time of writing those are two: Daedalus wallet and Infinito Wallet.

Buying, selling and trading with ADA coins is possible through exchanges such as Bittrex, HitBTC, Binance, Upbit, and others. Meanwhile, one of the major exchanges BitMEX provides a futures market for BTC:ADA, using only BTC as margin. Therefore, you cannot purchase, trade with, or withdraw Ada from BitMex. Cardano aims to be listed on more exchanges - new partnerships will be announced via its social media channels.

Moreover, the company plans that ADA will be available to purchase at a network of ATM machines in Japan in an unspecified future.

Cardano News

Follow the latest Cardano news and developments here.