Cardano(ADA)

Launched in 2107 by Charles Hoskinson, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, ADA is the native coin of Cardano, a decentralized proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain platform. The token is named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician and computer programmer. Cardano’s development is collectively supervised and overseen by Emurgo, IOG (Input Output Global) and the Swiss-based Cardano Foundation.

Cardano dubs itself as the third-generation blockchain which aims to solve the scalability and inefficiency issues of its proof-of-work predecessors, namely – BTC and ETH – in an eco-friendly way. It facilitates easy creation, deployment and running of smart contracts and DApps, thereby directly rivaling Ethereum. Cardano network is positioned towards "changemakers, innovators and visionaries" in the Web3.0 space.

However, the project is not without its detractors and is often criticized for its slow pace of development and an overly academic approach.

While the ADA cryptocurrency can be actively used for secure exchange of value without any third-party mediation, each ADA holder receives a stake in the Cardano network too and can participate in its governance. Holders can also delegate or pledge their ADA coins to a staking pool and earn rewards. The coin is also actively used to pay transaction fees on the Cardano network.

ADA price

ADA price remained in the vicinity of $0.02 post its launch in September 2017. This was the time when the crypto market was gearing up for a major bull run. The timing proved just right for ADA coin, and it rallied on to hit an all-time high of around $1.3 on Jan. 4, 2018. 

However, a gradual downtrend followed soon after, which spiraled into a market-wide bearish phase by mid-2018. This bearish trend continued for almost two years, with ADA price staying under $0.10 for the most part and even trading below $0.02 during the March 2020 market crash. 

According to our ADA live chart, the coin started to show some signs of revival only around July 2020 and breached the $0.15 resistance after a long time on July 26. This price resurgence occurred shortly after Cardano blockchain’s second development phase ‘Shelley’ went live in June 2020.

Thereafter, the ADA price chart mostly moved sideways up until late 2020, gathering momentum around January 2021. Buoyed up by a crypto market boom, ADA coin closed in on $2.5 for the first time on May. 16, 2021. The excitement was short-lived, however, and it began testing the newly-formed $1 support level in the months that followed.

Cardano’s third development stage ‘Goguen’ was announced in August 2021, and was scheduled to launch through the Alonzo hard-fork in September 2021. This stage was meant to introduce smart contracts functionality on the Cardano blockchain. The news caused a significant surge in ADA price once again, catapulting it to an ATH of $3.1 on Sept. 2, 2021. ADA’s fully diluted valuation stood at well over $135 billion that day. After that the coin lost a fair bit of ground and continued to trade around $1 during Q1, 2022.

How ADA works

ADA’s blockchain features two different layers, each responsible for different tasks, so as to improve its overall efficiency. These are:

Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) - which facilitates the settlement of ADA transactions, and the Cardano Computational Layer (CCL) - used for the execution of smart contracts.

Cardano employs an "environmentally sustainable, verifiably secure" proof-of-stake consensus protocol called Ourobros. Ouroboros has a time-period system referred to as ‘epochs’ for verifying transactions and creation of new blocks. Each epoch lasts 5 days and comprises 21,600 units of 20-second time frames called ‘slots’. A different stake pool is randomly picked up as the ‘slot leader’ for each slot, and is tasked with the block creation activity for that timeframe.

Given their differences, PoS blockchains consume negligible energy as compared to their PoW counterparts. In February 2021, Charles Hoskinson estimated that Cardano blockchain uses 6GWh of power per year, which is less than 0.01% of Bitcoin network’s 110.53 TWh consumption.

ADA news, updates and highlights

The Cardano team follows a clearly laid out roadmap for the protocol’s continuous development, which is collectively overseen by three different entities – IOG (Input Output Global), Cardano Foundation and Emurgo.

In September 2021, Cardano launched a significant upgrade via the Alonzo hard fork and introduced smart contracts as part of its third, "Goguen" stage. 

Thereafter, in February 2022, Cardano achieved a noteworthy adoption milestone as the number of ADA wallets crossed the 3 million mark. This was a major improvement from around 190,000 wallets recorded in December 2020. 

In other ADA news, the blockchain platform announced in March 2022 that its much-anticipated Vasil hard fork will be implemented in June 2022. This Cardano update is expected to help the network further enhance its transaction throughput by increasing the block size.

Frequently asked questions about ADA

• Can you mine or stake ADA?

While it's not possible to mine ADA, you can stake it to earn handsome rewards. This can be done by either delegating or pledging your ADA to a stake pool.

• What are some of the best ADA wallets?

Cardano recommends its native Daedalus or Yoroi desktop wallets for ADA storage. Some other popular ADA wallets include Ledger Nano X, Trezor Model T and the Exodus Wallet. 

• What can you do with ADA?

You can use ADA to pay for transactions on the Cardano network and/or trade it with other cryptocurrencies on exchange platforms. Alternatively, you may also stake your ADA coins to earn staking rewards.

• How to buy ADA?

You can buy ADA on almost any well-known cryptocurrency exchange, using crypto or fiat currencies.