Cardano is a platform for decentralized applications founded by Charles Hoskinson, who was also involved in the creation of Ethereum Casino. The network is still controlled by a handful of developers, but that’s expected to change as Cardano starts to decentralize next year to become more like IOTA. But unlike Ethereum, Cardano uses a proof-of-stake consensus protocol and a different programming language to solve the big problems in smart contract technology. Also, Cardano is also planning a self-funded governance system, similar to Dash, where users will be able to vote on the next developments for the blockchain ecosystem.
ADA
Cardano’s ADA’s price action has been similar to that of many other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the past year. It reached an all-time high in January 2018 and spent the rest of the year in the bear market. One interesting note is when you compare ADA’s price action versus the USD, to its value versus Bitcoin. There’s a slight difference between the two pairs. Versus the USD, ADA’s value has already reached and surpassed below its previously held lowest price of 10 cents. In September 2018, it broke below this level and reached the all-time-low of three cents in December.
Charles Hoskinson has stated that Cardano (ADA)’s technical development will move faster in 2019. According to him, one of the reasons why development has been slow in 2018 is because they were dealing with a code base that didn’t have good documentation. However, in spite of this challenge, the IOHK team has been able to write new code, with proper documentation, and avoid the legacy issues that came with the old code. For instance, they completely rewrote the entire wallet code. Going forward, it will be easier to roll out new features, and test them out with ease. One of the developments to look forward to in 2019 is the Shelley release, and Charles has assured the community that it will happen in Q1 of 2019. With the Shelley release, Cardano will become fully decentralized with the community fully involved in the project through staking pools.
