Cardano is a decentralized blockchain and cryptocurrency project that is fully open source. The project is lead by the likes of organisations like: IOHK, EMURGO & THE CARDANO FOUNDATION. It is developing a smart contract platform which seeks to deliver advanced features. It is the first blockchain to evolve out of a scientific philosophy and a research driven approach.
This uniquely collaborative effort steadily constructed the most precisely engineered cryptocurrency yet, a product that brings together such disciplines as distributed systems, mechanism design and cryptography. The result is the first cryptocurrency to be based in Haskell code.
Cardano’s multi layer protocol performs advanced functions, and has at its foundation a settlement layer that is elegantly linked to a control layer. The settlement layer will have a unit of account, while the control layer will run smart contracts. The control layer will be programmed to recognise identity, assisting compliance and allowing blacklisting for instance.
As a whole, the protocol’s design is geared towards protecting privacy rights of users, while also taking into account the needs of regulators. In doing so, Cardano is the first protocol to balance these requirements in a nuanced and effective way, pioneering a new approach for cryptocurrencies. In addition, while the platform has been solidly composed, they also recognise the need for it to evolve and adapt to changing needs. Consequently we have designed a system that can be upgraded by way of soft forks, and are installing a treasury system that will ensure the sustainability of the protocol.
Completely open source and patent-free, Cardano was built in a spirit of collaboration. And engineered for efficiency and scalability, the Cardano ecosystem is developing out into the most complete and most useful cryptocurrency ever constructed.
