Cardano blockchain is built from the ground up with a solid foundation of peer reviewed research. Cardano aims to achieve the scalability, interoperability, and sustainability needed for real-world applications.
Let’s look at unique problems that Cardano solves in the domain of blockchain technology as well as areas of human society that blockchain can have an impact on.
- Cheap transaction fees: For the democratic adoption of a blockchain the transaction fees must remain cheap and Cardano provides that. Moreover the eUTXO model implemented by Cardano makes it possible to batch transactions together thereby allowing many individual transactions to be executed at the costs similar to that of just one transaction.
- True decentralization: On March 31, 2021, termed as D (=0) Day, Cardano achieved what can be termed as true decentralization for the block generation process. At the boundary of epoch 257, Cardano network leveled up from being a federated network of nodes run by IOHK, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation into a network where the stake pool operator (SPOs) community 100% of blocks. Further the so-called decentralization parameter, ‘d’, for the Cardano network was permanently set to 0 in the Vasil hard fork to make the decentralization irreversible at a protocol level.
- Eco-friendly – Cardano by virtue of being a Proof of State based blockchain, the block production process that secures the network, does not need excessive computational power or time. In contrast PoW blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum require large amounts of energy in keeping the network up. Cardano, with its PoS mechanism, consumes 99% less electricity than either of these blockchains. IOHK chief Charles Hoskinson has estimated that Cardano’s energy use is just 0.01% of Bitcoin’s.
- Empowerment: In today’s society individuals rely heavily on governments for their welfare and quite often do not receive the expected benefits due to systemic inefficiencies. Lack of transparency coupled with rising inequality worsens common man’s access to capital and credit. Cardano can empower individuals and groups by giving a digital identity solution through Atala Prism that enables access to capital and ownership.
- Self-Sustaining Ecosystem: Cardano stands out in strengthening the decentralized ecosystem. Through Catalyst funding assistance is provided for developers and community members to implement their ideas on Cardano through a decentralized treasury and the projects are selected by ADA holders voting on proposals. Further novel ideas like ‘dReps’ are efforts towards creating a decentralized legislative governance model for the ecosystem aimed at long term sustainability.
- Deflationary monetary policy: Cardano has a deflationary monetary policy with its native cryptocurrency ADA having a fixed supply of 45 billion and ADA cannot be minted or burned.
- Non custodial staking: Cardano staking follows an elegant design which has no slashing of rewards, and no lock-up of funds, so you are always free to use your funds at any time.