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If we talk about Cardano Vs Ethereum, both the networks have their own distinct features, and both remain to be strong competitors to each other.
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum was founded by Vitalik Buterin; it was developed on innovations of Bitcoin but has considerable distinctions from the latter. Presently standing in the second position by market capitalization after Bitcoin, the network was officially launched in 2015, with the whitepaper released in 2013.
Ethereum proved to be a multi-purpose blockchain and was the first to introduce the concept of smart contracts. It is a decentralized open-source blockchain network powered by its cryptocurrency ether (ETH) coin. It facilitates the users to transact, earn interest, allows staking and earning interest, stores the currently trendy Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), play games, trade crypto assets, and more.
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum employs the Proof-of-Work Mechanism; however, the network is in the process of shifting to the Proof-of-Stake model. Through this model, the holders of ETH who own a minimum of 32 ETH can lock the funds in a contract and get rewards to solve the computations that are required for adding new blocks to the blockchain.
Despite Ethereum’s reliability as the second-largest crypto asset by market cap, its network’s higher gas fees and congestion were always an issue. In late last year, Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin put forward an EIP 4488, Ethereum Improvement Proposal, which was an upgrade to lessen the transaction fees for Ethereum rollups like Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync.
This EIP 4488 leverages a scheme known as Call data that is utilized in Layer 2 solutions. Optimistic rollups have reduced the gas fees by 3-8x, and ZK rollups are also 40-100x cheaper than Ethereum’s base layer.
What is Cardano?
Cardano was developed by technologists Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood. Hoskinson is also the co-founder of Ethereum. He began to develop Cardano and its cryptocurrency ADA in 2015, with the final launch in 2017 as he realized the challenges of the Proof-of-Work model.
Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform that operates by the Proof-of-Stake model. The Ecosystem differentiates itself from other projects by focusing on a research-driven approach to design and its emphasis on an academic approach towards its blockchain adoption. Cardano was the first to implement the consensus algorithm; Ouroboros was created by Cardano in its foundation time, which is the first PoS protocol that proved to be secure.
Its native cryptocurrency ADA is designed to provide participation to the network’s users in its operations. The holders of ADA have a right to vote on the proposed changes to the software.
Currently, the Cardano Ecosystem is jointly operated and maintained by three distinct, independent organizations:
- The Cardano Foundation- This Switzerland-based blockchain and crypto organization looks after the supervision and development of the Cardano blockchain.
- IOHK- It is the software engineering and technology company responsible for building Cardano.
- Emurgo- Emurgo is a global technology partner responsible for driving the adoption of Cardano’s technology and encouraging enterprises and larger organizations to do so.
Hydra is Cardano’s layer-2 scaling solution, and it allows parallel processing of transactions and smart contracts, which is set to launch sometime in 2022. As Hydra is said to be the best scaling solution, it might bring wonders for the Cardano ecosystem. Its integration might result in similar results as Ethereum’s parallel blockchains.
Cardano Vs Ethereum: Features Making them Distinct
Both Ethereum and Cardano blockchains have some similar features, and both are continuously thriving on being decentralized platforms building new tools and protocols globally. Hoskinson is the co-founder of both projects.
According to him, there was a need for a different blockchain with more security and scalability, as Ethereum had some issues related to scalability, which it somewhat faces to date.
Ethereum was created a couple of years before Cardano and comparatively has around ten times more market cap than Cardano. Experience-wise, Ethereum is a more mature blockchain network, but Cardano deploys upgraded concepts and technologies.
Cardano works on the Proof-of-Stake mechanism, and Ethereum currently works on the Proof-of-Work but is in the process to shift towards Proof-of-Stake:
Staking is a process that involves the users committing their crypto assets and supporting a blockchain network, and confirming the transactions. Becoming active network participants by depositing or locking a number of tokens is Staking. Cardano Staking is possible because of the Proof-of-Stake model its blockchain utilizes.
Whereas, Mining is a process by which new coins are entered into circulation. It facilitates the introduction of new cryptocurrency units. Ethereum mining is the process of creating and adding the transaction block to the Ethereum network.
Cardano has the advantage that it already works on the Proof-of-Stake model, whereas now that Ethereum 2.0 is willing to shift to the model, it requires a gradual process for it to do so.
Cardano’s programming language is Haskell, which is commonly used in the defense and banking sectors, and that of Ethereum is Solidity.
Cardano’s blockchain is divided into two layers, Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) and Cardano Computation Layer (CCL), and Ethereum is a Layer 1 blockchain.
Cardano differs in its emphasis on a research-driven approach to design, whereas Ethereum was designed for any number of custom assets and programs.
| Ethereum | Cardano | |
| Date Founded | Whitepaper Publish- 2013Final Launch- July 2015 | September 2017 |
| Native Cryptocurrency | ETH | ADA |
| Maximum Supply | No Max Supply- Increases by 4.5% annually | 45,000,000,000 |
| Current Price | $3,345.24 | $1.19 |
| Current Market Cap | $401,945,188,173 | $40,147,907,106 |
| Algorithm Used | Currently PoWShifting towards PoS (Ethereum 2.0) | PoS |
Furthermore, if we talk about a significant comparison between the two blockchain projects, Cardano is a much smaller one than the latter. Ethereum has a myriad of projects operating on the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. In contrast, Cardano has just around seven projects operating on it.
The current Total Value Locked (TVL) of Ethereum is $124.43 Billion, and that of Cardano is $323.82 Million.
Both the Blockchain networks are constantly fighting to be the leader in the industry. Whether it’s Cardano or Ethereum, both are growing and are coming up with new upgrades from time to time; it is to look forward to which one proves to be on the forefront.
Currently Ethereum is Trading at $3,345.24 with a market cap of $401,945,188,173.
Cardano is trading at $1.19 with a market cap of $40,147,907,106
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Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
