Cardano

Cardano is an open-source blockchain originating from peer-reviewed academic research. Cardano does not have a single published white paper but is developed from a collection of academic papers. Cardano sees itself as a “third-generation” protocol, improving on Bitcoin and Ethereum as the first and second generations, respectively. Cardano is named after an Italian Renaissance mathematician, Gerolamo Cardano, and its native currency ADA is named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician sometimes referenced as the first computer programmer. Cardano is backed by three entities: IOHK, The... Learn more about Cardano's background.

Cardano distributed vouchers for 25.9 billion ADA in a public token sale from September 2015 to January 2017. Participants could redeem the vouchers for actual ADA through Cardano’s native Daedalus wallet. The three entities supporting Cardano’s development received 5.2 billion ADA following the mining of Cardano’s genesis block. Their allocation was as follows: 2.46 billion ADA were allocated to IOHK which voluntarily adopted the following vesting schedule for its Ada: A third of IOHK’s ADA holdings were immediately available to IOHK. A third was made available... Learn more about Cardano's supply & distribution.