Why Cardano?

Cardano is a robust and fully-featured blockchain network. Read about the main features of the Cardano blockchain:

Real World Focus

Cardano's community is notably focused on making real world positive impact. Around 2 billion people, or 38% of adults, lack access to basic financial services. Cardano provides an alternative financial system that is inclusive, global, and fair. Anyone can use it to store value, make and receive transactions, and utilize decentralized finance (DeFi) to make investments or take out loans.

Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, has been discussing these topics for at least a decade, for example in this TED talk from 2014 (opens in a new tab). To this end, Cardano is pioneering a category of applications that aims to build financial inclusion called "RealFi". Some notable RealFi projects include Empowa (opens in a new tab), World Mobile (opens in a new tab), Pezesha (opens in a new tab), Commonlands (opens in a new tab), and Palmyra (opens in a new tab).

Research-Backed

The software that runs Cardano was created using a rigorous academic approach. Starting in 2015, Input Output Global (opens in a new tab) (the company behind Cardano's development) spent two years researching the ideal properties of a blockchain before launching the network in 2017. Their goal was to design a system that's secure, decentralized, and reliable. IOG worked closely with experts at more than 30 top institutiuons and universities including Stanford, Carnegie Melon, University of Edinburgh, and many more (opens in a new tab) and published over 200 research papers (opens in a new tab) which provide the scientific underpinnings for the Cardano blockchain.

To turn this academic understanding into software, IOG employed a process of formal methods including mathematical specifications, property-based tests, and the use of proofs. This development technique provides strong guarantees of the correctness of the system's basic components. Cardano's code has also been independently audited (opens in a new tab).

Decentralized

Cardano is the most decentralized of the major blockchains. Cardano's ledger is maintained and updated by 3000+ community-operated nodes known as stake pools. Stake pools are located all over the world, which allows Cardano to continue operating in the face of unexpected events as long as some stake pools keep producing blocks. Incentives and cryptography make it nearly impossible to disrupt or tamper with the Cardano ledger.

Decentralization also means that decision-making is distributed. Network upgrades must be approved by the majority of stake pools. This ensures that decisions are made collectively and no single entity has direct control over the network.

See statistics about Cardano's decentralization compared to other top blockchains. (opens in a new tab)

Democratic Governance

Democratic governance is a key element in the long-term strategy of Cardano. Governance puts decisions about Cardano's future in the hands of ADA holders. Users can create and vote on proposals that will determine the evolution of Cardano. The goal is that the network can adpat to needs of its users and a changing world as it progresses into the future.

Governance is in the process of being implemented (opens in a new tab). The plan includes a system of checks and balances to protect from any individual or group from gaining too much power. Read more about the plan for Cardano governance here (opens in a new tab).

Permissionless

Much like the internet, Cardano is an open network, where anyone can use or build on it without needing permission. It is available to everyone with an internet connection.

This allows anyone to send, receive, store value, and more without needing the approval of any third party or government. Transactions take place directly between users. Transactions cannot be denied. Assets cannot be frozen. For people living in repressive regimes, Cardano is a powerful tool that gives them access to a fair financial system where their property rights are upheld. These rights are enshrined directly into the code.

Capped Supply and Predictable Monetary Policy

Cardano has a maximum supply of 45 billion ADA. More than 35 billion of this ADA is already in circulation. The ADA that is not in circulation yet is held in reserve and released as rewards to stake pools to incentivize block production. The supply mechanics are well-defined; Cardano uses a formula to determine supply emissions. Read more about supply and monetary policy. (opens in a new tab)

ADA is also among the most fairly distributed cryptocurrencies. When Cardano was launched, 11.5% was set aside for the founding entities to develop and market the blockchain. The other 88.5% is either in active circulation by Cardano users, or is set aside as block rewards (which will also go into circulation). ADA that is currently in circulation is widely distributed; it is estimated that there are over 85 million ADA holders (opens in a new tab). This wide distribution leads to a diverse and active ecosystem. Read more about the initial distribution here (opens in a new tab).

Environmentally-Friendly

A 'consensus mechanism' is the list of rules that nodes use to come to agreement about the correct state of the blockchain. Cardano uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to secure itself. In a proof-of-stake system, the monetary value of ADA staked to staking pools is what secures the network and prevents attackers from disrupting Cardano. This is different from Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus, which uses electricity and computation to secure the network. Both have pros and cons, however it is clear that proof-of-stake uses a tiny fraction of the energy of Bitcoin while still enjoying most of the same security guarantees.

At last check, Cardano is over 200,000x more energy-efficient than Bitcoin. See the latest statistics (opens in a new tab) on Cardano's energy use.

Superior Staking

Cardano's Proof-of-Stake design is one of the best in crypto. The concept of staking is that a user will point, or delegate, their ADA toward a block-producing stake pool they trust. The more ADA a stake pool has delegated to it, the more likely it will produce additional blocks. When a stake pool produces a new block they earn a "block reward" for themselves and the people that stake to them. Staking aligns incentives and helps maintain Cardano's dynamic decentralization.

Staking provides security to the Cardano system because it makes it extremely expensive to attack Cardano. To do so, attackers would have to buy tens of billions of dollars worth of ADA and execute a coordinated 51% attack (opens in a new tab). As As long as a majority of the network's staked value is delegated to honest stake pools then a 51% attack is not possible.

Users that stake ADA receive rewards every 5 days. Staking is risk-free: Staked ADA never leaves your wallet and can be spent anytime. Over 60% of ADA currently in circulation is staked (opens in a new tab). Broad staking participation boosts the health, security, and decentralization of the network. Passive income from staking also makes ADA an attractive asset to hold long-term.

Learn more about staking here (opens in a new tab) and see how much ADA you could earn from staking (opens in a new tab).

Identity-Focused

Identity refers to the ability for users to build financial reputation from their activity on the blockchain. This is important because around 2 billion people are undocumented (meaning they don't have an official ID) and/or unbanked (meaning they are excluded from accessing financial services). Cardano's identity solutions provide an alternative method for users to build a digital track record and gain access to financial opportunities inculding loans, investments, real estate, job opportunities, and more.

Cardano's identity solutions also give individuals greater ownership of their personal data than the current system. As things stand, it is normal for companies to hold their user's personal information even though they often sell it, use it in bad ways, or lose it in data breaches. Identity solutions provide a new model in which you are the owner of your identity information and can share more their infomration more selectively, or even prove eligibility (for example, that they are older than 18) without sharing any personal information whatsoever using powerful zero-knowledge proof technology.

See Atala Prism (opens in a new tab) and the Identity Wallet (opens in a new tab) for an intro to Cardano identify solutions.

Well-Established

Cardano was launched in 2017. This makes it one of the more long-standing crypto networks. Since launch, Cardano has remained in the top 10 by market cap and attracted a global user base in the tens of millions. It is one of the most widely held and traded crypto assets and has thousands of projects building on it (opens in a new tab). It even ranked higher than Bitcoin and all other blockchains for brand intimacy (opens in a new tab).

This wide availability and recognition gives Cardano and diverse base of users that contribute to its vibrant ecosystem and active governance.

Highly Reliable

Cardano has had over 2300 days of 100% uptime since it launch in 2017. This is better uptime than Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, as well as many competing blockchains. Cardano has never had a restart, rollback, or fork.

This resilience is a result of the thoughtful design and high decentralization. This foundation makes it well-suited to be a trusted global financial platform, and a great place to build applications that require high availability.

Open-Source

The code behind Cardano is open source (opens in a new tab). This builds trust because anyone can see exactly how the platform is built. It also allows any potential issues to be found and resolved quickly.

The custodian of the source code is the Intersect Organization (opens in a new tab), which coordinates community members to maintain Cardano's core technology and creates a roadmap for the future. Intersect serves as a central hub for community discussion, governance, and development within the Cardano community.

Great Place to Build

Much like the internet, blockchains are open systems that anyone can build projects on without permission. This allows for a postive innovation loop as builders try different ideas and develop new solutions.

Cardano has a rapidly growing ecosystem of Dapps (decentralized applications). Dapp builders benefit from building on a stable platform with predictable transaction fees and a highly engaged community. Hundreds of projects have already launched and over 1000 more are in development. Explore some of the Dapps available here (opens in a new tab).

Programmable Smart Contracts

The biggest factor to Cardano's versatility are smart contracts. These are digital agreements that execute automatically once the conditions within them them are met.

Smart contracts are a great way to build blockchain-enabled contracts. Beyond that, they provide powerful building blocks to create complex applications on Cardano. These applications (called Dapps or decentralized apps) have the benefit that they treat all users equally. Their code cannot be changed once created and they can be trusted to always execute as written.

Here are a few examples of what you can create with smart contracts:

Contracts — Self-executing agreements between multiple parties that don't require intermediaries such as banks or lawyers.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) — Financial applications including lending and borrowing platforms, prediction markets, and decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) — Collaborative organization that allows users to make proposals, vote, manage a shared treasury, and take collective action toward a shared purpose.
Decentralized Identity (DID) — Identity solutions where users control their own data and build reputation on the blockchain.
Supply Chain Systems — Blockchain supply chain systems allow businesses and consumers to see immutable records of exactly where their goods come from.

Smart contracts are a versatile tool that can create the items highlighted above, and many more. In fact, many of their most important uses probably haven't been invented yet.

Diverse Ecosystem

Over the last few years Cardano has seen a diverse explosion of projects launching, including DeFi, identity, NFTs, social media, telecom, AI, gaming, computing and much more. This variety constitutes the basis for a healthy and sustainable digital economy, where users can find everything they need in one place.

Some of the most promising Cardano projects are utilizing the Cardano platform to revolutionize existing industries. Some of these projects include World Mobile (opens in a new tab) to revolutionze telecom, Book.io (opens in a new tab) to disrupt publishing, and Axo Finance (opens in a new tab) to create better trading platforms.

Engaged and Supportive Community

Cardano has a committed and highly active community. Some of the main hubs of activity are X (opens in a new tab), Reddit (opens in a new tab), Telegram (opens in a new tab), and Youtube (opens in a new tab).

Ambitious and Well-Defined Roadmap

Cardano has a well-defined roadmap with 5 major stages. The stages can be simplified as:

Stages 1 through 3 are mostly complete, though improvements continue. Now the focus is on stage 4 and 5. Stage 4, known as Basho, aims to improve scalability so Cardano can process more transactions and serve more users. Stage 5, known as Voltaire, enables democratic governance so that users can vote to help decide Cardano's future. Read the full roadmap here (opens in a new tab).

Quickly Improving Developer Environment

There is an increasing number of languages that can create smart contracts. Smart contracts can now be written in Haskell (opens in a new tab), Python (opens in a new tab), TypeScript (opens in a new tab), Go (opens in a new tab), as well as dedicated languages like Aiken (opens in a new tab). Smart contracts can also be created in a visual drag-and-drop editor using Marlowe (opens in a new tab). This diversity of options make Cardano increasingly accessible for developers from different backgrounds.

Furthermore, additional development improvements are taking place. Coding environments like Demeter Run (opens in a new tab), Kuber IDE (opens in a new tab), and Jambhala Dev Suite (opens in a new tab) make it easy to get set up and start coding. Projects like Lucid (opens in a new tab) and Mesh (opens in a new tab) offer powerful building blocks to build Dapps. Plutus (opens in a new tab), the original smart contract language, is also undergoing continuous advancement and is adding new features.

Third-Generation

Bitcoin represents the first-generation of blockchain, which introduced secure and decentralized cryptocurrency networks to the world.

Ethereum is the first of the second-generation blockchains, which added programmability and smart contract capabilities. This allowed users to interact with custom applications on the blockchain.

Cardano represents the third generation, which combines the best elements of Bitcoin (secure and decentralized sound money) and Ethereum (programmable smart contracts) while learning from the missteps of both.

Cardano's founder Charles Hoskinson designed Cardano to specifically make improvements in the areas of interoperability, scalability, and sustainability. Read a summary of each below, or read about these concepts in Cardano's documentation (opens in a new tab).

Interoperable

Interoperability is the property of being able to transfer value to and from other blockchains outside Cardano ecosystem. It also relates to interfacing with the traditional financial system. This is important because it facilitates the flow of money between platforms and improves the blockchain experience for users.

One major initiative that is aiming to solve this is the "side chain" or "partner chain" framework that being added to Cardano. This framework allows other custom blockchains to be created that can interact seamlessly with Cardano. As an example, Midnight (opens in a new tab) is a Cardano partner chain that is built to protect sensitive data for business use cases. Partner chains have custom features that make them more suitable for certain uses. With partner chains, assets can be sent freely between these chains and the Cardano blockchain.

Scalable

Scalability refers to the ability of the network to handle large voumes of transactions quickly and cheaply. The Cardano network has been designed from the start with scalability in mind. The current transaction throughput is sufficient for now, but once Cardano gains further adoption it will need to employ more scaling solutions.

There are initiatives underway to improve Cardano's scalability while preserving decentralization. These include Hydra (opens in a new tab), input endorsers (opens in a new tab), side chains, and layer 2s. Scaling will be achieved through multiple strategies, giving users the option to use whatever makes sense for them. See details about some scaling strategies here (opens in a new tab).

Sustainable

Sustainability in this context means the ability of the network to adapt and remain competitive in the long-term. Cardano has two main mechanisms to remain sustainable and self-sufficient:

The first element of long-term sustainability is governance, which puts the control of the Cardano network in the hands of users. This improves Cardano's long-term trajectory because it means the Cardano network can continuously adapt to the needs and desires of users. Governance empowers the community to be engaged because they have a real stake in decision making process.

The second element of sustainability is the Cardano Treasury. This is a substantial fund of ADA that is set aside for the growth of Cardano. Once governance is implemented it will be managed by the Cardano community who can vote on how to deploy treasury funds. The treasury is self-sustaining because it receives a small percentage of ADA from the fees of each transaction, and from block rewards. As the Cardano grows the treasury grows as well. See the current state of the treasury here (opens in a new tab).

Forward-looking

Cardano's development continues on many fronts. There are ongoing efforts to improve Cardano's speed, resilience, privacy, governance, developer experience, and much more. The future of Cardano is bright and the community is welcoming. Feel free to get involved!