Cardano (platform)

Cardano
Cardano logo
Cardano logo	Ada coin symbol
Denominations
Symbol	₳
Ticker symbol	ADA
Precision	10−6
Subunits
1⁄1000000	Lovelace
Development
Initial release	September 29, 2017; 6 years ago
Latest release	Cardano SL 1.3.1 / 16 October 2018 (5 years ago)
Code repository	https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-sl
Written in	Haskell
License	MIT
Website	www.cardano.org
Ledger
Block explorer	cardanoexplorer.com
Circulating supply	c. 25.9 Billion ((As of June 2018))
Supply limit	45 billion
Valuation
Exchange rate	$0.076 ((As of October 2018))
Market cap	$1.96 billion ((As of October 2018))

Cardano is a distributed computing platform that runs the blockchain for the Ada cryptocurrency.^[3] Bittrex was the first exchange and Daedalus was the first cryptocurrency wallet that holds Ada and allowes transfers to other wallet addresses, but there are more to choose from now.^[4]

Cardano blockchain was created by blockchain development firm Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) and led by Charles Hoskinson, former co-founder of BitShares, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, and aims to run smart contracts, decentralized applications, side chains, multi-party computation, and metadata.

Platform

Coins are minted and decisions are made via a proof-of-stake algorithm called Ouroboros^[5] instead of a proof-of-work system; consensus is generated by coin-holder vote. In this protocol, slot leaders generate new blocks in the blockchain and verify the transactions. Anyone holding an Ada coin can become a slot leader.

This staking mechanism makes it unnecessary to brute force the hash code. Thus saves a significant part of the energy required by work-based systems, and allows a resource-efficient and cost-saving blockchain creation.

Layers

The Ada cryptocurrency operates on its own blockchain called the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL). The CSL is an accounting layer and supports ledger transactions. A second layer called the Cardano Computation Layer (CCL) will support smart contracts and decentralised applications.

This multi-layer architecture allows for easier updates via soft forks than Ethereum does; in Ethereum these two layers are intertwined.

Development

Cardano was released on September 29, 2017 under the 'Byron' bootstrap phase with the official launch in Japan.

Cardano develops their currency around a Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA).^[6] Cardano uses Haskell, a programming language with a high degree of fault tolerance.