Cardano

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform: the first to be founded on peer-reviewed research and developed through evidence-based methods. It combines pioneering technologies to provide unparalleled security and sustainability to decentralized applications, systems, and societies.

With a leading team of engineers, Cardano exists to redistribute power from unaccountable structures to the margins – to individuals – and be an enabling force for positive change and progress.

Ouroboros is the first peer-reviewed, verifiably secure blockchain protocol, and Cardano is the first blockchain to implement it. Ouroboros enables the Cardano network’s decentralization, and allows it to sustainably scale to global requirements without, crucially, compromising security.

The protocol is the culmination of tireless effort, building on foundational research, and is propelled by a vision for more secure and transparent global payment systems, and a means to redistribute, more fairly, power and control.

Cardano is developed using evidence-based methods: a novel combination of formal methods, which are normally found in critical high-stake applications, and an agile approach, which helps the project remain adaptable and responsive to emerging requirements and new innovations. To support global applications, systems, and solutions, we believe security assurance is not a choice: it’s a requirement. Our protocol implementations and platform integrations are first researched, challenged, and mathematically modeled and tested before they are specified. These specifications then inform development which, in turn, is independently audited. The result is a codebase offering an unrivaled level of assurance.

Cardano makes it possible for any actors that do not know each other - and have no reason to trust one another - to interact and transact, securely. It’s a platform for building trust where none might naturally exist, opening up whole new markets and opportunities. Through Ouroboros, Cardano is provably secure against bad actors and Sybil attacks. Every transaction, interaction, and exchange is immutably and transparently recovered, and securely validated using multi-signature and a pioneering extended UTXO model.

With a committed community at its core, Cardano is an open-source project developed through open participation. To ensure the longevity and health of the network, Cardano features an incentive mechanism that rewards users - either as stake pool operators or stake delegators - for their participation. The platform is built and expanded through enhancement and improvement protocols. Cardano’s governance system gives everyone a democratic voice; ada holders can submit or vote on proposals to upgrade the platform or help determine the direction of development. The governance model uniquely positions Cardano for future growth and development, and allows it to introduce new capability tailored to its user’s needs. It ensures Cardano and its community can continuously fund and decide upon platform and ecosystem improvements.

Ouroboros allows Cardano to scale to global requirements with minimal energy requirements. Unlike other blockchains, Cardano does not require exponentially more energy to increase performance and add blocks. The performance-sustainability balance is achieved through a combination of novel approaches, including multi-ledger, side chains, and parallel transaction processing through multi-party state channels.

The network proliferates as the number of stake pools increases, while parameters are set and adjusted to measure the attractiveness of specific stake pools. This is a network that rewards participation directly. Cardano is designed to ensure that those who act in the best interests of the network are also acting in their own best interests. This ensures the development of a healthy ecosystem, and, in turn, the endurance, health, and robustness of the network, now and into the future. The combination of sustainability and scalability allows Cardano to achieve the throughput required to meet the evolving demands of global systems: financial, logistics, identity, societal.