The ADA price update as of now is $0.8174. In the previous 24 hours, its trading volume was $1,928,294,048, and its value has increased by 1.43%. As of now, ADA's live market cap is $30,553,213,582, and it is ranked as the #10 on the Coincu. ADA has a circulating supply of 45,000,000,000 and a maximum supply of 45,000,000,000.

An Overview & History of Cardano

Cardano is a smart-contract platform that operates on an open-source, layered design. Its modularization allows for various features such as network delegation, sidechains, and light client data structures. The network utilizes a version of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) called Ouroboros to secure the network and manage block production. ADA, the native token of Cardano, provides stakers with a claim on new issuance based on their holdings and enables users to pay for transactions.

The Origins and Development of Cardano

Cardano is a blockchain project that originated from peer-reviewed academic research. Unlike other projects, Cardano does not have a single white paper but is developed based on a collection of academic papers. Positioned as a "third-generation" protocol, Cardano aims to improve upon the shortcomings of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the first and second generations, respectively. The project is named after Gerolamo Cardano, an Italian Renaissance mathematician, and its native currency ADA is named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician known as the first computer programmer.

Cardano is supported by three entities: IOHK, The Cardano Foundation, and Emurgo. IOHK, founded by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, is a blockchain research and development company contracted to work on Cardano from 2015 to 2020. The Cardano Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on core development and ecosystem growth. Emurgo, a Japanese venture capital firm, is also involved in supporting Cardano.

The Launch Phases of Cardano

Cardano's full launch consists of five phases: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. The Byron era began in September 2017 with the mainnet launch of the Cardano blockchain. During this phase, the network operated as a federated network that only supported ADA transactions. The Shelley phase, launched in July 2020, introduced Cardano's proposed Ouroboros Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. Currently, Cardano is in the process of rolling out its third phase, Goguen, which will enable support for smart contracts and native token issuance. The remaining phases, Basho and Voltaire, are being researched and developed alongside Goguen by IOHK and Emurgo.

The Roadmap of Cardano

Byron (Federated Mainnet)

Date: September 2017

The Byron era marked the initial iteration of the Cardano network. It allowed users to buy, sell, and transact with ADA across the protocol. The Byron chain operated on a purpose-built consensus layer called Ouroboro Genesis, functioning as a federated network primarily managed by the Cardano Foundation. Block rewards generated during this phase were burned, resulting in no inflation. The Byron era also introduced the Daedalus wallet, IOHK's official desktop wallet for ADA, and Yoroi, a light wallet developed by Emurgo for quick transactions and daily use.

Shelley (Proof-of-Stake)

Date: July 2020

The Shelley phase introduced Cardano's proposed Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus layer, allowing users to participate in the transaction validation process through direct involvement or delegation in exchange for staking rewards. This upgrade also marked a significant step towards decentralization, as the previous mainnet operated as a federated network managed primarily by the Cardano Foundation.

The full rollout of Shelley is expected to take approximately one month. Cardano plans to release a Shelley mainnet candidate chain around June 23, followed by the code release to the mainnet on June 30. The official hard fork activating Shelley's changes is anticipated to occur on July 29, providing sufficient time for network participants to upgrade their nodes and wallets. Staking rewards are expected to be distributed starting from August 18, according to the roadmap.

Goguen (Smart Contracts)

Date: To Be Confirmed

The Goguen era will introduce smart contract functionality to Cardano, enabling developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the platform. DApp development will be facilitated through Cardano's purpose-built smart contract language, Plutus, which utilizes the functional programming language Haskell. Goguen will also introduce Marlowe, a domain-specific language (DSL) for financial contracts built on Plutus. Together, Marlowe and Plutus will empower developers to create Cardano-based tokens, including native fungible or non-fungible tokens, as well as the tokenization of external digital or physical assets such as equity, commodities, and real estate.

Basho (Scaling)

Date: To Be Confirmed

The Basho era aims to optimize the Cardano network for scalability and interoperability. The primary focus is to enhance the underlying performance of Cardano to support applications that require high transaction volumes and promote network growth and adoption.

Two key developments proposed for the Basho era are sidechains and parallel accounting styles. Sidechains are additional blockchains that interoperate with the main chain, helping to off-load work from the base layer and increase overall network capacity through parallel computation. While Cardano currently utilizes a UTXO model, sidechains will also support account-based models. The introduction of parallel accounting styles will enable Cardano to interoperate with external networks more seamlessly and support new use cases.

Voltaire (On-chain governance and treasury)

Date: To Be Confirmed

The Voltaire era will introduce Cardano's proposed on-chain governance and treasury system. Participants will be able to utilize their staked ADA to vote on the future direction of the network.

With the launch of Voltaire, protocol improvement proposals will originate from community participants rather than solely from IOHK and Emurgo. Token holders, whether through direct staking or delegation, will have the opportunity to vote on which proposals the network should implement. The Voltaire era will also introduce a treasury system, pooling a fraction of all transaction fees to fund development activities following the voting process.

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