Cardano is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that is built from peer-reviewed papers. It is a research-driven blockchain in its development, from consensus mechanism, security, to smart contracts. Cardano was designed to be security first, by top engineers and academicians in the fields of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Cardano is based on Haskell programming language and provides a smart contract development language called Plutus for developers to develop their dApps on. Another programming language is Marlowe, which is allows financial and business experts with no technical background, to create finance-based smart contracts. The consensus mechanism for Cardano is the Ouroboros-Proof of Stake (OPoS) algorithm. There are five different versions for Ouroboros algorithm, the latest being Ouroboros Hydra which enables horizontal scaling and therefore will be able to handle large TPS. 

The currency for Cardano is ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician. ADA functions similar to bitcoin; as a digital currency that can be used anonymously by anyone, and all transactions are recorded on the blockchain. As Cardano is based on PoS algorithm, it is secured through ADA. ADA holders can delegate to a staking pool to earn rewards in ADA for securing the network. ADA can be safely stored in Daedalus Wallet or Yoroi Wallet, and can delegate ADA to staking pools in these wallets. In the future, there will be more utilities for ADA in terms of the smart contract applications and services.

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MKT, Julian Sarokin, NON-fungible Chan.