Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Cardano are all public blockchains, but each one makes different design choices. Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain. Work on it started in 2015, and mainnet launched in September 2017.1
Built on Research
Input Output, the engineering company that built Cardano's software,1 was founded in 2015.2 It has set up research hubs with universities, including one at the University of Edinburgh3 and one at Stanford University.4
Input Output Research has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers on cryptography, consensus, smart contracts and game theory, and the full list is open to read in its research library.5 Cardano's consensus protocol, Ouroboros, came with a mathematical security proof and went through peer review before it ran on a live network.1
Designed for Real-World Use
Cardano does more than move money. Smart contracts (programs that run on the blockchain) can automate agreements, and businesses can record documents and supply-chain data on a public ledger that anyone can check.1
Some examples:
- Palmyra records each stage of commodity production on Cardano, from harvest and certification to export paperwork, so buyers can check where a product came from.6
- Georgia's National Wine Agency worked with the Cardano Foundation on a pilot that stores wine certification records on Cardano, so buyers can check a bottle's history.7
- Empowa provides rent-to-own financing for low-cost homes in Africa. Its pilot started in Beira, Mozambique.8
Adastack lists more projects like these under supply chain, real estate and real-world assets.
Security and Reliability
- In a typical epoch, around a thousand stake pools produce Cardano's blocks, and hundreds of different operators around the world run them.1
- A pool's rewards stop growing once it passes a saturation point, so there is little for any operator to gain by getting too large.1
- Cardano has no slashing. A pool that breaks the rules misses out on rewards, but the ADA delegated to it is never taken.9
- The node software is open source, so anyone can read, test and suggest fixes to the Cardano node source code.10
On 21 November 2025, a transaction crafted to trigger a bug in a software library caused nodes running different software versions to split into two chains.11 Blocks kept being produced on both, and no user funds were lost, but exchanges paused ADA deposits and withdrawals while the split lasted.11 About 14 hours later, after stake pool operators had upgraded their nodes, the chains merged back into one.12
Energy Use
Cardano runs on proof of stake through its Ouroboros protocol. On proof-of-work networks, computers compete to solve puzzles, which takes a lot of electricity. On Cardano, the protocol picks which stake pool produces each block based on how much ADA is delegated to it, so no puzzle-solving is needed.9
An assessment published in 2024 by the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI), commissioned by the Cardano Foundation, estimated the whole network's electricity use at about 705 megawatt hours a year.13
The Cardano Ecosystem
At launch, three organizations shared the work: Input Output built the software, the Cardano Foundation oversaw and promoted the ecosystem, and EMURGO focused on commercial adoption.1 Today none of them runs Cardano on its own. Intersect, an organization anyone can join, coordinates development and maintenance, and protocol changes and treasury spending are decided by on-chain votes.1
Cardano has an on-chain treasury. It receives 20% of each epoch's reward pot, which is made up of transaction fees and new ADA released from the reserve.14,15 ADA can leave the treasury only through a treasury withdrawal approved by on-chain governance.14 The Cardano website shows the current balance on its treasury page.
To see what people are building, browse Adastack's DApps, wallets and governance sections.
Opportunities on Cardano
Cardano is open to anyone, so you can take part in several ways:
- Vote on the blockchain's future. Delegate your voting power to a DRep (a delegated representative who votes on governance proposals for you), or register as a DRep yourself.16 GovTool is one way to do either. For how voting works, see what is Cardano governance.
- Apply for a grant. Project Catalyst, Cardano's grant program, has paid for ecosystem projects from the treasury since 2020. The Cardano Foundation took over running it in 2026, and any new treasury money for Catalyst must be approved through on-chain governance.17
- Earn staking rewards. Delegate your ADA to a stake pool and receive a share of its rewards, or run your own stake pool and produce blocks yourself.
- Create decentralized apps. Developers use smart contracts to build DApps for finance, ticketing, governance and more.
- Issue tokens and NFTs. Cardano handles native tokens, including NFTs, in the ledger itself. Creating and sending them needs no smart contract, and moving them costs the same as moving ADA.18
How Cardano's Technology Works
- Fixed maximum supply. No more than 45 billion ADA can ever exist, and new ADA comes only from a fixed reserve, paid out as staking rewards and treasury funding.1
- Staking without lock-ups. Delegated ADA stays in your wallet. You can spend it or switch pools at any time.19
- Predictable transactions. Cardano uses the extended UTXO model (eUTxO). A transaction depends only on the outputs it spends, so a wallet can work out its result and fee before sending it.20 The fee is worked out from a formula in the protocol parameters, so users don't bid against each other for block space.1
- Upgrades without downtime. The Hard Fork Combinator lets Cardano move to new protocol rules while the chain keeps running, without pausing or splitting the chain to make the change.21
- Scaling. Hydra is a layer 2 protocol: a small group moves transactions off the main chain, then writes the final result back to it. Hydra reached version 1.0 in October 2025.22 Ouroboros Leios aims to raise how many transactions the main chain can process. It is planned for the Dijkstra hard fork, which on-chain governance has to approve before it can happen; until then it runs on a public testnet.23
- Partner chains. Partner chains are separate blockchains that connect to Cardano. Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain, runs its mainnet alongside Cardano, and its NIGHT token exists on both networks.24
Where to Go Next
- How to set up a Cardano wallet
- How to buy ADA
- How to stake ADA on Cardano
- What can you do on Cardano?
- Cardano glossary
Learn More
- What Is Cardano?: Beginner overview on the official Cardano website
- How Cardano Works: Consensus, the ledger and upgrades explained on the official Cardano website
- Cardano Glossary: Plain-language definitions of Cardano terms
- Why Cardano resources: Research library, Ouroboros, roadmap and constitution listings on Adastack
- Why Cardano: The original 2017 essay by founder Charles Hoskinson on the ideas behind the project
- Cardano guides: More beginner guides listed on Adastack
