What ADA is
Cardano is a Layer 1 blockchain founded in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, an Ethereum co-founder who left the project over governance disputes. Cardano is unusual among major blockchains for its development approach: every protocol upgrade is preceded by formal academic papers, peer review, and a multi-phase rollout (Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, Voltaire). Native token ADA is named after Ada Lovelace.
How it works
Cardano runs the Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus protocol, which was published as a peer-reviewed paper before deployment. Stakers delegate ADA to stake pools, which produce blocks and earn rewards distributed to delegators. Cardano supports smart contracts via Plutus (a Haskell-derived language) since the Alonzo upgrade in 2021. Block times are ~20 seconds; transaction fees are typically a fraction of a cent.
Use cases
Cardano hosts a smaller DeFi ecosystem than Ethereum or Solana but with active projects in lending, DEXs, and stablecoins (notably DJED, an over-collateralized stablecoin). It also has notable adoption in identity and supply-chain projects, particularly in African countries through partnerships with governments and NGOs. The Project Catalyst voting platform funds community proposals from a treasury.
Tradeoffs and criticism
Cardano's deliberate, research-first development approach has been both its differentiator and its biggest criticism: features ship more slowly than competitors, and adoption has lagged ecosystems that move faster. Smart contract development in Plutus has a steeper learning curve than Solidity. Supporters argue the rigorous approach reduces long-term protocol risk.
Where to track ADA
See the staking entry for context on Cardano's PoS model.