What is Cardano?
Cardano is the world’s first peer-reviewed blockchain that runs on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The platform uses ADA as its currency to run smart contracts, similar to how Ether is used in running smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
History of Cardano
Cardano is widely termed as a third-generation blockchain because it was built to address the scalability problems of Bitcoin (first-generation blockchain) and Ethereum (second-generation blockchain).
In 2015, Charles Hoskinson, an early Ethereum and BitShares co-founder, started developing the Cardano platform. The project was officially launched in 2017 under the ‘Byron’ bootstrap phase and raised more than $60 million in an ICO. Currently, Cardano is being developed by three different organizations:
- Cardano Foundation oversees the development of the Cardano community.
- Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) is responsible for developing Cardano blockchain and its application tools.
- EMURGO promotes the commercial applications of Cardano.
Within a year of launch, in 2018, the price of Cardano cryptocurrency, ADA, reached an all-time high of $1.33. Soon, however, the price dropped to as low as $0.03. As of 21 Dec 2020, the price of ADA is $0.163.
What is Cardano used for?
The Cardano blockchain is still in its early stages of development, and as such, it has not been used yet. In the future, Cardano can be used for the execution of smart contracts that are not only secure but immutable too. Cardano also has ambitious goals in terms of scalability and intends to process millions of transactions per second.
It’s no surprise that ADA is currently ranked at 8th position on CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of $5.16 billion.
Cardano is expanding its efforts by partnering with IBM to work on a software distribution project and PwC to generate a commercial strategy. Cardano has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the US government to use the platform in the Agri-tech sector sometime in the future.
How does Cardano work?
Cardano, the blockchain network, consists of two layers. The Cardano Settlement Layer settles all the transactions using ADA, and the other one, the Control Layer, hosts the smart contracts. At the heart of Cardano is Ouroboros, a consensus protocol developed in-house by the IOHK team.
The platform will roll out in five different stages: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. The Byron phase arrived in 2017 with the Cardano blockchain’s mainnet launch that only supported ADA transactions. Shelley was launched in August 2020 and brought proof-of-staking to life. The other three stages will be launched in the near future.
ADA is the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network. It has a total supply of ADA of 45 billion coins. With Shelley’s launch, validators on the network can stake ADA to help mint new blocks on the Cardano network.
Advantages
Cardano is completely open-source and the team is promising to build a foundation that everybody else can build upon.
BleedingUnicorn - RedditHow can Canadians get Cardano (ADA)?
How do I buy Cardano in Canada (ADA to CAD)?
Buying Cardano (ADA) in Canada can be done through a cryptocurrency exchange such as NDAX, a peer-to-peer trade, or a cryptocurrency ATM. However, using platforms such as NDAX will allow for affordable, safe, and fast transactions.
👉 How to buy Cardano in Canada?
| ADA | CAD |
|---|---|
| 1 ADA | 0.5233 CAD |
| 5 ADA | 2.6165 CAD |
| 10 ADA | 5.233 CAD |
| 25 ADA | 13.0825 CAD |
| 50 ADA | 26.165 CAD |
| 100 ADA | 52.33 CAD |
| 500 ADA | 261.65 CAD |
| 1000 ADA | 523.3 CAD |
| 5000 ADA | 2616.5 CAD |
| 10000 ADA | 5233 CAD |
| CAD | ADA |
|---|---|
| 1 CAD | 1.91094 ADA |
| 10 CAD | 19.10949 ADA |
| 20 CAD | 38.21899 ADA |
| 50 CAD | 95.54748 ADA |
| 100 CAD | 191.09497 ADA |
| 500 CAD | 955.47487 ADA |
| 1000 CAD | 1910.94974 ADA |
| 5000 CAD | 9554.74871 ADA |
| 10000 CAD | 19109.49742 ADA |
| 50000 CAD | 95547.4871 ADA |
How do I store Cardano?
It is highly recommended that you always store Cardano (ADA) in a cryptocurrency hardware wallet. However, at NDAX we have all the security measures in place to allow you to safely store your cryptocurrency on our platform. See NDAX Security. For cold wallets, check out Ledger or Trezor for your hardware wallet needs.