Cardano (ADA): Inside the Buzz Around the Newest Top 10 Crypto

Simply put, Cardano (ADA) aims to be a competitor to the current number two cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, insofar as the Cardano team aims to be a newer and improved smart contracts platform.

That sounds interesting enough, right?

Well, the global cryptocurrency markets have thought so in recent weeks, as ADA has somewhat astonishingly vaulted into the top 10 cryptos by market cap after just launching at the beginning of October 2017.

That's insane volume, insanely fast. So you might feel like you're about to "miss the boat," as it were. But there's a lot of factors in play around Cardano from an investment standpoint, so let's get into the nuts and bolts and let you make up your own mind.

Cardano 101

Cardano is the brain child of blockchain development group IOHK and a group of Japanese businessmen. And IOHK is headed up by Charles Hoskinson, a former Ethereum developer and current community leader for Ethereum Classic.

Hoskinson brings a certain level of prestige or infamy to Cardano, then, depending on who you ask.

The project was envisioned as a new smart contracts platform built on a Gen 3 blockchain (i.e. ETH is Gen 2, BTC is Gen 1). The mission is to create this platform from the ground up with regulatory adherence in mind.

On the technical side of things, Cardano will be the first blockchain coded up on the Haskell programming language. Bitcoin is coded up in C++ and Ethereum in Solidity, for comparison. Haskell is heavily mathematical language, offering increased precision per Hoskinson.

It's important to keep in mind, as well, that Cardano is very much so still in development. Phase 1 of the project has been dubbed "Byron," which is the platform's first layer that launched back in early October.

Next, Phase 2 has been dubbed "Shelley," and should be going live at some point toward the middle of 2018 barring any delays. Shelley will provide smart contract functionalities for the Cardano network.

So is this the Ethereum killer?

Not so fast. To be sure, Cardano looks pretty promising. But it's got several major factors to contend with that might make its battle with ETH an uphill battle, at least in the short- and mid-term.

Indeed, Ethereum's entrenched first-mover status as a smart contracts platform is going to be hard to beat.

Ethereum is:

• already extremely trusted
• already offering smart contract solutions efficiently
• already improving at an impressive pace

Unless Cardano's smart contract capabilities end up blowing Ethereum's out of the water, it's likely ADA won't end up beating ETH any time soon.

New projects are launched everyday that claim to be the Bitcoin-killer or the Ethereum killer. But the number one and number two cryptocurrencies look locked in at the top of the cryptocurrency markets for the foreseeable future.

That could change one day, but it's something to at least weigh when considering an investment in ADA in the short-term.

Recent performance

Speaking of short-term, Cardano's had one helluva bold entrance into the crypto marketplace, skyrocketing into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in under two months.

Can't ignore that, can we?

The market speaks for itself. People are excited about ADA's potential. Any talk of an "Ethereum killer" seems to get peoples' attention.

Will the price keep shooting up for now or is a retracement imminent? No one has the crystal ball to know what comes next. But this short-term excitement could forebode mid- and long-term performance.

Is it worth investing in

Here's our obligatory disclaimer: you are the sole author of your financial portfolio. We here at CoinBureau don't offer financial advice. We just offer insights into the world of cryptoeconomics.

With that said, it's virtually an objective fact that a cryptocurrency that's come out so recently will have higher price days ahead. For mid-term and longer minded traders, Cardano could be an interesting play.

The price and volume of ADA might be a bit choppy for now while the project is still so early. In the end, you'll have to make up your own mind. But Cardano's certainly one to keep an eye on, in the very least.