Up to #4 on Coinmarketcap.com… why the rise? And why this is just the beginning.
Cardano, IOHK team… what have you been creating for us?
Since 2015, the IOHK team has been researching, creating, and developing Cardano’s network. The new year of 2021 brings new exciting updates to the technology. The founders of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, created Cardano with the intensions of innovating the crypto space to solve the weaknesses of Ethereum.
The Quick & Dirty: What is Cardano
I take you’ve been around the block and know what makes Cardano really unique. In short, it’s a third-generation blockchain with high assurance technology and takes a scientific approach to innovating the blockchain space. The Cardano team has viewed this as a global blockchain initiative with numerous engineers, PhDs, and academia based brains to find solutions. The team is focusing on three pillars:
- scalability,
- interoperability, and
- sustainability
The Year of Cardano…
Why do we hold ADA? Current ADA bag holders and Cardano curious minds are all curious. The IOHK team is constantly sharing updates and news. It can be easy to miss a big release or an update coming soon. Here are 6 bullish technology factors as to why 2021 might just be the year of ADA.
1. ERC-20 CONVERTER
First, we have the ERC-20 Converter. The Cardano team added this tool to help Ethereum users and projects to build trust in the Cardano network. The focus is interoperability between existing coins and networks.
It’s no secret that the Ethereum network has large transaction fees, and a slow transaction speed. Overall, the network isn’t very scalable as more projects and users enter.
The ERC-20 Converter allows users to store their ETH on the Cardano network. It allows Ethereum tokens to live on the Cardano ecosystem as ETH tokens, yet still give you full-access to your ETH tokens. As ETH2.0 is being built out, this is a secure way of protecting those tokens AND getting comfortable with Cardano.
Goal: build trust and have more users and projects shift over to the Cardano network.
2. SHELLEY — 70% OF NETWORK STAKED
Cardano created their roadmap of how they’ll accomplish their vision to be third generation blockchain using different eras. Byron and Shelley have already been fully released.
Shelley’s release came in August 2020. With the focus on decentralization, Shelley brought the Daedulus & Yoroi wallets. When ADA is staked in a stake pool, there will be 4–5% annual returns (yes, you as an ADA holder can receive rewards for your coins).
Within 6 months of being released, now 70% of the network is staked. What does this mean? Think supply and demand. More people being staked means there are more HODLrs (long-term holders), and less people selling their ADA.
Lower liquidity and less ADA sellers can hopefully positively drive up the price
As the word gets out about Cardano’s updates and more utility is added to the network, buckle up.
3. GOGUEN ERA — SMART CONTRACTS & DAPPS
IN Q1 2021, GOGUEN IS COMING.
Following the Shelley Era release is the Goguen Era. Goguen brings smart contracts and the creation of Decentralized Applications called “Dapps”.
Smart contracts are a self-executing contract as an agreement between the buyer and seller that is directly written into lines of code. Best to think of them as IFTHEN statements that rely on conditionality. For example: if January 1 hit, funds will be transferred from Bob to Alice account automatically.
Ethereum has smart contracts, but this is unique since Cardano’s proof of stake (PoS) network is rooted on those three pillars to allow the network to be more scalable.
With all these new networks and coins rising, looking at the real-life utility is important to gauge long-term adoption. The creation of Dapps and projects will bring more reasons for users to enter the Cardano ecosystem.
Dapps bring impressive new functionality and new use cases for the future of blockchains.
MARLOWE PLAYGROUND
Marlowe Playground is HERE.
IOG wanted make building Dapps and financial smart contracts a friction free process. They created a domain specific language specifically for financial contracts. This language is called Marlowe — it has been simplified for the non-coder to be able create smart contracts.
The real-value add we have with Marlowe is Marlowe’s playground.
Marlowe’s Playground is an interface that is focused on allowing a developer who’s not as technical or familiar with coding to be able to build decentralized financial project.
Marlowe Playground allows you use static analysis to create and test your smart contracts before they are live as Dapps with millions of dollars tied to it. This means to playing the smart contract out with different hypothetical situations to understand how it will perform.
For example: you could be a domain expert, like someone in the insurance industry, yet not know how to code. This person understands what type of contract they need to create so they can zoom over to Marlowe’s playground today and design that contract.
Once Goguen is released in the coming month, this project written on Marlowe can come to life.
PROJECT CATALYST
Project Catalyst — began back in Q3 2020.
It’s no secret that the community is what builds adoption and makes a network truly decentralized. Project Catalyst is here to pull innovative ideas from the community and submit them. From this, the community of users staked in the network get to vote on which ideas they’d like to see receive funding.
Project Catalyst encourages people to be staked and envision the future of network.
How it works: People submit proposals on IdeaScale. The staked ADA holders vote on the proposals they’d like to see. And certain projects receive funding from the Cardano Treasury. The Treasury is fueled with a percentage of funds from transactions.
Community meets innovation.
Native Tokens
IOHK has released, “Mary Goguen” the Hardfork Combinator event. This brings Cardano Native tokens to the network.
Allegra, released at the end of 2020, provided a ‘token-locking’ feature to the network. This builds into governance and smart contract functionality.
“Mary Goguen” and Allegra help support Voltaire, the Cardano era tied to making the network fully self-sufficient.
Wrap Up
These bullish factors are only for the tech updates for the first quarter of the 2021. There’s plenty more bullish factors in the crypto space (comparing Ethereum and Bitcoin) and macroeconomics-based to layer into why 2021 might just be the year of ADA.
For more investment-minded Cardano discussion, check out the “Why Cardano” channel on Youtube.
