Cardano is similar to Ethereum in that it is a smart contract platform. It is made up of three companies: Cardano Foundation, IOHK, and Emurgo. The Cardano Foundation’s role is to guard the ecosystem and community while IOHK is contracted to design, build, and maintain the platform, and Emurgo was formed to integrate, develop, and support the businesses who want to use this decentralized blockchain.
How Cardano Works

It uses the semi-flexible but very secure programming language Haskell. It is the first project to be made from scientific philosophy and built on peer-reviewed academic research. The goal of Cardano isn’t to overhaul the entire financial system. It is to bring banking to places it has been too “expensive” to implement before, i.e., the developing world.
Pros

Peer-reviewed security measures. Trying to make atomic swaps happen easier for peer-to-peer transfers.
Cons

The sheer scope of the project could cause its downfall. It has not been widely adopted in the exchanges yet. Those that have adopted it are required to purchase with Bitcoin or Ethereum. None of the planned features work at this time.
The Technology Behind Cardano

There is a separation between the ledger of account values and the reason why the values are moved from one account to another. This separation makes available different use-cases for businesses.

The Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) acts as the balance ledger and was created as an improvement to the Bitcoin. It is the first layer of the platform, and it uses a proof-of-stake algorithm to generate new blocks and confirm transactions.

The Cardano Computation Layer (CCL) contains the information on why transactions occur. Since it is detached from the CSL, it can contain different rules. The team behind Cardano has created the Plutus language to use to develop smart contracts on the CCL. It also supports the Solidarity language for low assurance applications.

Cardano will support sidechains based on a new protocol Kiayias, Miller, Zindros (KMZ) which works on proofs of work. KMZ allows funds to move more securely from CSL to CCL or any other blockchain with the same protocol.
The Wallet

The wallet is called Daedalus wallet. It is an open-source wallet that is created by the Cardano team. Currently, its functionality is limited to Cardano, but it plans to become a multi-currency wallet in the future. It will contain an app store.  It is only available on the web, but there are plans to make it available on iOS and Android app stores.
Governance

Cardano uses a voting center for updates to ensure that its protocol can be updated over time. Software and protocol updates will be proposed, and those users vote. The votes are weighted by the amount of stake they hold. Users can also delegate their voting rights to a stake pool to make an informed decision on their behalf.
Market Summary

Cardano’s IPO was from September 2015 through January 2017. The Cardano ADA token began trading on the open market in October 2017.  Since it has been on the open market for such little time, it’s hard to predict what will move the price.  Two guesses as to what has happened in the past: an increase in the number of exchanges that have listed the token and the release of the Cardano roadmap.

The Cardano ADA is only available on a few exchanges. Bittrex and Binance have the highest volume but only accept Bitcoin or Ethereum as purchasing capital. Soon Japan will sell it through a network of 25 ATMs.

As of late January 2018, at $16m it has the fifth-highest market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. It went from a $0.03 to a high of $1.28 in price to $0.61 as of late January 2018.
Conclusion

The developers of Cardano state “…our hope is that Cardano’s future could be summarized in a single anthropomorphized sentence. Cardano is a pragmatic dreamer that learns from its elders, is a good citizen in its community, and always finds a way to pay its bills.”

Currently, Cardano is still learning and growing, but some people are calling it a top 10 currency. It works with peer-reviewed papers and professors from universities around the world to incorporate academic