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Cardano

Cardano is a decentralized third-generation blockchain platform that operates on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and hosts the ADA cryptocurrency. It distinguishes itself by its scientific and research-oriented approach.

It emphasizes sustainability, scalability, and transparency, aiming to provide an inclusive and resilient infrastructure for global financial and social applications. The primary objective of Cardano is to offer secure and reliable financial services to individuals who currently lack access to them.

Security is a core principle of Cardano's design, utilizing the functional programming language Haskell. Advanced features of Haskell are leveraged to ensure code correctness through formal and executable specifications, extensive property-based testing, and simulation-based testing.

Cardano is actively developing a smart contract platform that surpasses previous protocols, catering to enterprise-level decentralized applications (dApps). It strives to deliver advanced features while maintaining stability and security. Additionally, Cardano plans to adopt a democratic governance system to facilitate ongoing evolution and sustain the project through a visionary treasury system.

Founders 

Charles Hoskinson is the co-founder of Cardano. He was also a co-founder of Ethereum but left the project in 2014 due to disagreements on how the platform should be run. After leaving Ethereum, Hoskinson set out his plans for Cardano in 2015.

Hoskinson co-founded the business IOHK to develop blockchains for use by corporations, governments, and educational institutions. IOHK is responsible for building the Cardano blockchain. Cardano's development began in 2015 and was launched in 2017. 

Cardano is overseen and supervised by the Cardano Foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. The Cardano community is working towards transitioning Cardano to a fully decentralized, self-sustaining network. Recently, Hoskinson said that the crypto industry had to unite against authoritarianism

Network security

Cardano focuses on scalability, interoperability, and sustainability to create a robust blockchain network.

Scalability is achieved by implementing techniques like data compression and introducing Hydra, which enables multiple side chains. This ensures that the network can handle increasing transaction volumes and efficiently manage supportive data.

Interoperability allows users to interact with multiple currencies across different blockchains, fostering a multi-functional environment for financial and commercial operations. Cardano aims to support cross-chain transfers, multiple token types, and widely used smart contract languages. It also emphasizes interoperability with centralized banking entities to enhance legitimacy and convenience.

Sustainability is a crucial aspect of Cardano's design. As a proof-of-stake blockchain, it ensures self-sustainability by involving the community in continuous development. The community plays a role in proposing and implementing system improvements. The treasury system, controlled by the community, is consistently replenished through sources like newly-minted coins held for funding, a portion of stake pool rewards, and transaction fees.

Cardano's Ouroboros Consensus Mechanism

The Ouroboros consensus mechanism is a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain protocol that forms the foundation of the Cardano ecosystem. It allows ADA to be staked and used for transaction validation. Key features of Ouroboros include slot leaders who are responsible for adding blocks to the chain within designated time slots. The transparency of slot leader selection is a notable aspect, as they are predetermined for each slot.

Oroboros prioritizes security by guarding against long-range attacks and allowing new or rejoining parties to synchronize with a trusted copy of the genesis block. It also offers scalability and flexibility, ensuring the security and sustainability of any blockchain implementing it. Moreover, Ouroboros facilitates the creation of decentralized applications and protocols through the use of smart contracts.

Developments

Dynamic P2P networking is an important advancement for Cardano, offering improved performance, resilience, and decentralization. By automating the peer selection process, Dynamic P2P enhances communication between distributed nodes and simplifies the operation of the relay and block-producing nodes. 

With the release of node v.1.35.6, Dynamic P2P is now a built-in functionality in Cardano. SPOs are encouraged to test the P2P functionality by updating their relays to utilize the P2P topology mode. Collaboratively, the IOG and CF teams, along with the SPO community, will assess network connectivity to ensure a smooth implementation of Dynamic P2P.

The evolution of Cardano's networking includes various stages such as the initial federated structure, the hybrid model, and the current implementation of Dynamic P2P. These developments aim to optimize network performance, minimize communication delays, and enhance network resilience against failures or malicious activities.

In the Dynamic P2P setup, SPOs can configure a target number of connections, which can be selected from thousands of relays, rather than being limited to a static pool. If any relays go offline, new ones are automatically selected to meet the target. This flexible configuration eliminates the need for over-provisioning and enables automatic failover.

Dynamic P2P allows for sophisticated configurations, including direct peering arrangements between SPOs. Peers can be listed based on specific criteria, such as maintaining at least one connection between relays and ensuring resilience without over-provisioning.

P2P optimizes the selection of peers to minimize diffusion time across the entire network. This optimization process occurs continuously and automatically, ensuring efficient communication. Simulation results show that this optimization procedure achieves near-optimal global outcomes within a relatively short time frame.