So you have heard about Ethereum and Cardano, but you
So you have heard about Ethereum and Cardano, but you are not sure how do they work? Or perhaps you are looking to find out which of them has the best technology?
Either way, I’ve got everything covered in this Ethereum vs Cardano guide!
Let’s begin with Ethereum!
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The Basics
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a blockchain platform developed by Vitalik Buterin in 2015. This was the first every project to help smart contract development.
Also, Ethereum allows its users to send and receive coins, and has its own native digital currency Ether (ETH).
The Ethereum network is decentralized, which means that it is controlled by a single entity, each transaction being verified by the community.
What is Cardano?
Similar to Ethereum, Cardano blockchain project uses smart contract technology. Developed by Charles Hoskinson in 2015, Cardano was developed as a better version of Ethereum blockchain.
Where Ethereum is a second generation blockchain, Cardano calls itself a third generation blockchain as it has its own cryptocurrency named ADA coin and a similar function to ETH.
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The Differences
Both the platforms were designed to be used for dApp development as well as for the deployment of smart contracts.
However, besides these two similarities, the two blockchains feature significant differences. Let’s discuss them,
Consensus Mechanisms
Ethereum
The current consensus mechanism used by Ethereum is Proof-of-Work (PoW). However, Ethereum has plans for switching its mechanism from PoW to PoS (Proof-of-Stake) sometime soon.
Ethereum’s Casper protocol will be implemented to try and solve the blockchain scalability issues.
After the new PoS mechanism will be determined to be stable, the Ethereum developers will set off a difficulty time bomb that will make Ethereum impossible to mine.
Cardano
On the other hand, Cardano uses a Proof-of-Stake protocol but uses the Ouroboros algorithm. Slot leaders are the entities in this blockchain who work on transaction confirmation and generate new bocks for being qualified to become a slot leader.
However, you need to hold any amount of ADA coins for that. In order to be a slot leader, the the algorithm has to choose a coin you own.
Programming Language
Ethereum
Ethereum was built with the use of Solidity programming language. The ethereum team developed Solidity particularly for enabling the creation of Ethereum smart contract uses cases which operate using EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine).
Cardano
Different from the lots of other projects, which fork the original code of different blockchain, Cardano developed their own protocol by using Haskell and Plutus.
Haskell is a functional programming language that is based on an advanced form of mathematics.
Plutus is also a functional programming language, but it is an internal language developed by Cardano team.
Architecture
Ethereum
Currently, Ethereum has one layer, but scaling solutions in terms of a second layer are under development.
Plasma is the solution featuring sidechains similar to that of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. These sidechains enable transactions without having to use up bandwidth on the main chain of Ethereum.
Ethereum will also be using sharding as well to lessen the blockchain scalability issues, and rather focus on blockchain scalability solutions.
Cardano
Cardano’s structure consists of two layers keeping separated the accounting of the ledger from the computational part.
This separation proffers the end-user with more control over the privacy as well as execution of their blockchain based smart contracts.
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Ethereum vs Cardano: The Conclusion
There is a lot of active development on the part of both of these projects Ethereum and Cardano, some of which will surely lead to an appreciation in price for the platform’s respective coins.
With that said, both Ethereum and Cardano have their own sets of cons and pros. This makes it very difficult to exactly say which one will be more successful in the future.
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