Cardano (ADA)–The founder of Cardano has made a bold claim for his cryptocurrency. Speaking at the ICO Summit in Switzerland last week, Charles Hoskinson outlined how his currency plans to evolve over the coming year, with a focus on improving the mistakes committed to this point while emphasizing strengths. Specifically, the founder of Cardano visualizes the success of ADA being tied to the same problem plaguing the majority of the cryptomarket: scalability.

Goals for Cardano

Speaking with Blockchain Innovation, Hoskinson outlined three goals that Cardano has established for itself in 2018:

One. Fixing the sins of the path: Design, development, and deployment of cryptocurrency. Cardano built its name upon being one of the first cryptocurrency companies to develop with an emphasis on scientific implementation and practices. The rallying call since the release of ADA in October 2017 has been, “best team, best technology.” While many have pointed out this label tends to be applied by all communities to their favored currency, Cardano has been built from the ground up emphasizing the culture of the scientific method and careful implementation. As Hoskinson puts it, Cardano needs to ensure, “the scientific claims made by them are actually right.” Cardano is taking a long position on the industry, rather than being a quick pump and dump ICO scheme. If they can produce the most convincing technology, backed by practical use and features, they hope the industry and market will recognize their achievement with investment dollars. 

Two. Proper architecture, well-defined protocols, and specifications of a wallet. Inherent in their overarching focus on scientific design and research, Hoskinson and co-founder Jeremy Wood have taken a critical stance against the state of cryptocurrencies to date: “none of them have met [our] standards in the past 9 years.” While this again represents ambitious talk by the founder of ADA, it echoes the growing frustration both within and outside the industry of cryptocurrency–blockchain may be revolutionary, but has yet to change the world even after a decade on the market. 

Three. To be the first 3rd generation cryptocurrency: Scales as more users join. Scalability, scalability, scalability. Blockchain, as a defining feature of cryptocurrency, has rightly dominated the conversation surrounding the industry to this point. In 2018 and the foreseeable future, the focus is going to shift to scalable currencies. Bitcoin may still be the industry leader in terms of brand recognition and market cap valuation, but the original cryptocurrency is plagued by severe limitations in its ability to handle large network volume. Hoskinson, in recognizing the greatest hurdle for Cardano in mass adoption, has highlighted scaling as the primary goal for ADA going forward. Hoskinson foresees the future of cryptocurrency being a race to produce usable, real-world implemented currencies that can scale with the market. He cites Ripple as a model leader for the industry, “…the key factors are scalability, interoperability, and sustainability. Ripple operation is a great example of interoperability with 130 bank partners and the inter ledger projects” As of the end of last year, Cardano was capable of handling 7-10 transactions per second, similar to that of Bitcoin, but a far cry from Ripple’s 1500 tps. However, that was in the earliest iteration of ADA function. Cardano is implementing a Proof of Stake algorithm that is designed to scale as the user base and network volume increases (similar to NEM, which produces 4000+ tps). This creates a network that is flexible, while diverting resources to transaction speed and network load only as needed.

ADA Attempting to Lead Third Generation Cryptocurrencies

Hoskinson and the Cardano team have outlined an ambitious and interesting take on the cryptocurrency hurdle of scalability. It’s going to take time and further proof of function by the developers of ADA before investors can be fully convinced of the cryptocurrency’s potential. However, it’s a positive sign for those interested in the currency that the two founders are committed to growing the scalability of the currency. Before any crypto can dream of revolutionizing digital transactions and disrupting the realm of fiat, proof of real-world scaling should be a prerequisite. The crop of third generation currencies (Cardano, TRON & Nano to name a few) are all targeting this ability to handle large network volume, with near instant, free transactions. Cardano is looking to lead the pack in terms of implementation, and it starts with a near obsessive commitment to objective revision.