Cardano is a decentralized public blockchain, it also consists of a cryptocurrency project and is fully open-source. Cardano is a smart contract platform that delivers advanced features and it is the first blockchain platform that has evolved out of scientific philosophy and it is a research-first driven approach.

Cardano not only focuses on cryptocurrency but its technological platform is competent to run financial applications that are used by everyone - individuals, organizations, governments. Cardano also aims to run decentralized applications (DApps) on blockchain than the service being controlled by a single party. Cardano’s vision is to consists of new ways for regulated computing that will bring better financial inclusion by facilitating open access to all the financial services.

Cardano offers scalability and security through its layered architecture. It is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain network and aims to achieve interoperability, scalability, and sustainability for applications.

Cardano is home to the Ada cryptocurrency which is utilized for sending and receiving the digital funds. ADA is the digital currency of the Cardano platform and its motive is to provide safe and quick currency exchange. 

According to Santiment’s 2019 market report, Cardano was ranked as the most actively developed cryptocurrency project in 2019.

The Backbone behind Cardano

Cardano was conceptualized by Charles Hoskinson who is also one of the co-founders of Ethereum.

The contribution to the development of Cardano has been led by three organizations:

1. The Cardano Foundation: It is based in Switzerland and the mission for the Cardano Protocol technology is to standardize, protect, and promote it.
2. Emurgo: It invests in start-ups and assists, supports and develops the commercial ventures to build on the ecosystem of Cardano blockchain.
3. IOHK: It is a leading cryptocurrency research and development company that was founded in the year 2015 by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood. It is contracted to design, build, and maintain the platform of Cardano until 2020.

Basically, the IOHK develops the technology, the Cardano Foundation supervises the development and promotes Cardano while Emurgo takes care and drives the commercial adoption.

Also Read, Smart Contracts and Ethereum

Cardano describes itself as 3rd generation blockchain

Generation 1: The introduction of Bitcoin led to conduct transactions in a decentralized state in the monetary system without the need for a middleman like in the traditional monetary system. However, with all the first-generation blockchains, the problem was that one could not add conditions to these transactions and the system was led by only monetary transactions. Hence, something was required to make the process seamless.

Generation 2: This something was smart contracts. Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum is said to be the answer and the stalwart of the second generation. Even if this generation of blockchain had provided ways, there was yet a need for scalability, governance - in a way.

Generation 3: Hoskinson believed that there was a need for the blockchain to evolve. So was said to take the elements from the first two generations of the blockchain and created a new blockchain with the additional elements of his own - Cardano.

The 3 elements that Cardano offered were - 

1. Scalability
2. Interoperability
3. Sustainability

The Roadmap of Cardano

The roadmap of Cardano has been summarized in an organized manner with the help of 5 eras:

1. Byron - Foundation - Enabled users to buy and sell the ada cryptocurrency. Also delivered the Daedalus wallet, IOHK’s official desktop wallet for Ada, and Yoroi.
2. Shelley - Decentralization - Ensured that the technology was in place, decentralized, secured, and consisted of autonomous systems. It represents the maturation of the network.
3. Goguen - Smart contracts - Integration of smart contracts. Development in the level of enterprise, mission, and decentralized smart contract applications.
4. Basho - Scaling - Focused on improvements in performance - optimization, improving the scalability and network’s interoperability.
5. Voltaire - Governance - IOHK’s addition to governance and treasury system - making it a self-sustaining system.

Also Read, Blockchain And Business - Things You Need To Know

The Principles of Cardano

The following principles have been directly taken from the website of Cardano, so as to help you understand the motives, beliefs, and philosophies better:

Cardano’s Website: https://www.cardano.org/

• Separation of accounting and computation into different layers
• Implementation of core components in highly modular functional code
• Small groups of academics and developers competing with peer reviewed research
• Heavy use of interdisciplinary teams including early use of InfoSec experts
• Fast iteration between white papers, implementation and new research required to correct issues discovered during review
• Building in the ability to upgrade post-deployed systems without destroying the network
• Development of a decentralized funding mechanism for future work
• A long-term view on improving the design of cryptocurrencies so they can work on mobile devices with a reasonable and secure user experience
• Bringing stakeholders closer to the operations and maintenance of their cryptocurrency
• Acknowledging the need to account for multiple assets in the same ledger
• Abstracting transactions to include optional metadata in order to better conform to the needs of legacy systems
• Learning from the nearly 1,000 altcoins by embracing features that make sense
• Adopt a standards-driven process inspired by the Internet Engineering Task Force using a dedicated foundation to lock down the final protocol design
• Explore the social elements of commerce
• Find a healthy middle ground for regulators to interact with commerce without compromising some core principles inherited from Bitcoin

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