Cardano (ADA)

Launched in 2017, Cardano is considered a third-generation blockchain (Bitcoin and Ethereum as the first and second generations). Cardano has positioned itself as an alternative to Ethereum and was actually developed by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum. Cardano's goal is to create a more scalable, secure and efficient ecosystem for decentralized applications. Cardano operates using a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol which uses considerably less energy than proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

ADA is Cardano's main cryptocurrency and is named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician who is recognized as the first computer programmer.

Cardano has a strong support for its project which has seen its market cap rise to over $90B CAD in May 2021. Cardano uses Ouroboros, an algorithm that uses proof-of-stake to mine blocks. As of August 9, 2021, approximately $41 billion CAD is staked equating to 71.78% of the ADA in circulation.

Cardano's development to become a decentralized application (DApp) platform is still in progress and is being built in five phase called eras. Each of the eras is named after an influential historical figure. Foundation (Byron era), Decentralization (Shelley era), Smart Contracts (Goguen era), Scaling (Basho era), Governance (Voltaire era)