Cardano (ADA) is among the top 10 coins rated by Coin Market Cap, however some particularities about this coin and blockchain that makes it stand out and hold a unique promise of growth. The mission and philosophy behind Cardano is to be more than a cryptocurrency: it was designed to be a technological platform capable of supporting the myriad of financial transactions and applications performed by individuals, governments and institutions especially in developing economies.
Founded in 2015, with a solid academic base, Cardano is the first cryptocurrency to evolve from scientific research led by a highly skilled team of engineers and researchers. Cardano team members have the shared vision of creating a cryptocurrency that encompasses all the possibilities unlocked by blockchain technology and applies them to empower individuals and systems in the developing world.
Cardano is fully human-centered. Its ultimate mission is to bring innovation and technology to create an ecosystem that is balanced, sustainable and focused on the needs of its users. Thus, his focus is on the true practical applications of blockchain and how they can ultimately create a better environment for businesses and individuals.
The development of Cardano is strongly based on academic research and peer review which make sit one of the protocols with the most advanced features in crypto. Its language is written in Haskell, ensuring an accurate mathematical code. Because of regulatory oversight and consumer privacy, Cardano is a flexible and scalable system, very adequate for adoption at large scale and multiple uses.
Unlike other currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum whose network is built on a proof-of-work, Cardano uses a new proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm called Ouroboros to reach consensus, which results in less consumption of energy and computational power to be mined, encourage honesty and long-term participation. PoS enhances efficiency and widens the possibility of individuals having control over their cryptocurrencies themselves.
Cardano is the result of a collective effort from three organisations: the Cardano Foundation, based in Switzerland that supports the Cardano community and liaises with authorities; IOHK, the research body leading development of the platform; and Emurgo, who looks after investments and venture capital to build on the Cardano blockchain.
IOHK is the brains behind the Cardano blockchain. Their team is made of scientists and engineers engaged in developing decentralised open-source technologies that are able to cause cascading disruption.
Committed to the development of emerging economies: The projects in Africa and Asia
Cardano acts at the heart of the Smart Africa Alliance: a joined effort of African nations and partners like the World Bank to bring the continent forward. The alliance was created to transform Africa using the power of technology and relies on five pillars for development: Policy, Access, e-Government, Entrepreneurship and sustainable development.
Cardano offers the technology necessary for systematic changes to happen. With the multitude of applications that blockchain has, a decentralised technology can enable digital payments, smart contracts, food traceability and loads more.
In Ethiopia, more than 80 million people work in agriculture; production of coffee taking the largest sum of those. Having developed a deep understanding of both the social and economic importance of growing coffee, in addition to team’s unique connections within the country , Cardano entered in an agreement with the Ethiopian government to implement Cardano technology into coffee supply chain — with the possibility of extending this deal to other sectors upon good results.
According to reports, Cardano expects Ethiopian developers to be using the platform by the end of the year.
Apart from Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda have already shown interest in bringing in Cardano to their economies. Last month during IOHK team in Africa, Charles Hoskinson visited Rwanda and talked to authorities about plans of implementing decentralised systems in public systems and IOHK also announced plans to provide blockchain training for students in the region.
In a video interview, John O’ Connor, IOHK Director of African Operations commented on opportunities and projects in Rwanda. “Whilst our technology is general and be built to many different applications, you need to start by understanding what the problems are,” he said. “Rwanda is an interesting country because of the ability of running trial projects at small scale, with population of 10 million people and a progressive, technology interested government.”
Uganda is another targeted country for Cardano’s expansion since the country shows an incredible growth mobile penetration and technology take up, especially among the younger generations.
Also addressing flaws in food supply chain, Cardano team is looking into applying its blockchain in Vietnam and Cambodia to trace beef supply through, from its origins all the way into food markets. “It creates a single global market enabling anyone to trade at a global scale, which is revolutionary. The blockchain platform can solve many varied issues and make the world a better place,” said Hoskinson.
It is publicly known that Cardano intends to take its technology beyond Africa onto other developing countries in South America and Asia.
Hoskinson revealed that his motivation in the crypto world is to develop an efficient decentralised that can support change in the developing world: “About 3 billion people are unbanked and as the consequence of not having good identity, financial infrastructure; they don’t have the ability to climb out of poverty without a considerable amount of assistance or leaving their country which creates brain drain.”
“This technology has no owner. This technology has no central point of failure. This technology has no one in control. Instead, it’s infrastructure, global infrastructure that no matter what, how rich you are or poor you are, use the same infrastructure.”
Indeed, the recently launched 2018 Africa Blockchain report from Liquid Telecom reinforces the praise that tech initiatives have in Africa. Initiatives at a local and global level are critical; to ensure the continent moves forward and grow sustainability .
John O’Connor, Director of African Operations at IOKH, will be special the guest on the FinancialFox TV show next week. Questions and suggestion of topics welcomed, get in touch at info@cassiopeia-ltd.com
