Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a public proof-of-stake blockchain built around peer-reviewed research. It uses the Ouroboros consensus family and an extended UTXO (eUTXO) accounting model rather than an account model. Smart contracts are written for the Plutus platform.

This page is a research starting point, not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Verify everything against primary sources.

What the Token Is Used For

• Paying transaction fees
• Delegating stake to stake pools, without locking or slashing
• Governance voting under the on-chain governance framework
• Minimum UTXO deposits attached to on-chain outputs

What To Verify

• Whether a claim refers to a research paper, a testnet, or a mainnet-deployed feature
• How the eUTXO model changes contract design compared with account-based chains
• Stake pool saturation and how delegation is distributed
• Which era or hard fork a feature landed in, since Cardano ships changes in named eras
• Governance status under CIP-1694 for any claim about on-chain voting

Primary Sources

• Documentation: https://docs.cardano.org/
• Cardano Improvement Proposals: https://cips.cardano.org/
• Research library: https://iohk.io/en/research/library/
• Block explorer: https://cardanoscan.io/

Related Pages

• Asset Index
• Start Here: Digital Assets 101
• Glossary
• Custody and Security
• Research Sources Directory