Cardano vs. Ethereum

You may find that Cardano and Ethereum are often compared to each other thanks to both their network’s providing similar offerings.

 

Developers can use both the Ethereum (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) blockchains for familiar features, including running custom programming logic (smart contracts) and building programs (decentralized applications).

 

However, they both offer different philosophies to how they approach their design.

Cardano vs Ethereum
Cardano

CARDANO

Cardano offers a similar platform to Ethereum, but differs in that it emphasizes a research-driven approach to design.

Ethereum

ETHEREUM

Ethereum was built to be a kind of operating system for any number of custom assets and programs.

To further understand how these two complex crypto platforms work, use our comparison tool below for a side-by-side comparison of Cardano vs Ethereum.

Sự khác biệt giữa CardanoEthereum

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Cardano

Ngày 27 tháng 9 năm 2017

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Ethereum

The Ethereum white paper was published in late 2013 and the software went live in July 2015. In 2021, the network is scheduled to complete an extensive overhaul of its software that will bring it closer to the completion of its roadmap.

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Cardano

Cardano was created by technologists Jeremy Wood and  Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum.

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Ethereum

Ethereum was created by 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin (with many others contributing to its code). Buterin was previously a founder at the publication Bitcoin Magazine and a 2014 Theil Fellow.

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Cardano

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Ethereum

ETH (Note: ETC is an earlier version of the Ethereum software, now managed separately). 

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Cardano

Cardano’s primary use case is to allow transactions in its native cryptocurrency, ADA, and to enable developers to build secure decentralized applications powered by it.

 

However, Cardano differs from other blockchain projects by emphasizing a research-driven approach to design, aiming to achieve an academic rigor it believes will propel adoption of its technology.

 

While Cardano may not promise new ground-breaking features, users and developers may find its cryptocurrency offers appealing optimizations based on scientific research and formal verification, a process by which its code is verified mathematically.

 

Further, Cardano is released in phases and has seen 5 major platform upgrades since 2017, including Byron, which enabled the transfer for ADA cryptocurrency for the first time and Voltaire, which introduced a new model for how users could fund development for software changes.

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Ethereum

Ethereum was created with the intention of becoming a global, open-source platform for custom assets and new kinds of economic applications.

 

Considered to be one of the most ambitious blockchain projects to date, Ethereum seeks to leverage blockchain technology to decentralize products and services in a wide range of use cases beyond money.

 

To date, Ethereum has seen a few distinct phases that have emphasized different aspects of its capabilities.

 

First, entrepreneurs flocked to Ethereum in 2017 during its famous “ICO boom”, where creators would try to raise money for new projects using new assets on the Ethereum blockchain.During this time, Ethereum was seen as something of a global capital allocator and funding mechanism.

 

A new phase of Ethereum, called decentralized finance (DeFi), has started garnering attention in 2020. This movement saw the creation of decentralized applications (dapps) intended to automate financial services like lending or borrowing without the need for a traditional bank or intermediary.

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Cardano

Cardano is maintained by three separate and independent organizations.

 

The Cardano Foundation oversees development of the Cardano blockchain.

 

IOHK built Cardano and designed Ouroboros, the proof-of-stake algorithm Cardano uses to operate its network.

 

Emurgo helps encourage enterprises and larger organizations to adopt Cardano’s technology.

 

At the time of its launch, approximately 31 billion ADA were created, nearly 26 billion of which were sold to investors by a Japan-based company hired to manage the sale. Participants were able to purchase vouchers that could later be exchanged for ADA on the software’s release.

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Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin envisioned Ethereum as a “world computer” on which anyone could launch and run an application.

 

This idea was propelled forward by a non-profit, the Ethereum Foundation, which sold 72 million ETH, Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, in a crowdsale, to raise $18 million at the time.

 

However, what would distinguish Ethereum early on was the vibrant developer community that would soon spin up around the project.

 

Meaningful contributions to its technology would be made by developers like Gavin Wood, Jeff Wilke, Joseph Lubin and Charles Hoskinson, who all would go on to become prominent voices in the blockchain ecosystem.

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Cardano

To secure its network, Cardano uses Ouroboros, a consensus mechanism similar to Proof of Stake (PoS) ones that enables users to validate transactions and earn newly minted ADA.

 

Ouroboros divides time into epochs and slots, where epochs are the overarching time frames, and slots are 20-second increments within epochs.

 

Within each slot, a slot leader is randomly chosen and is responsible for choosing the blocks that get added to the blockchain.

 

Once the epoch has ended, the previous slot leaders elect the slot leaders of the next epoch.

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Ethereum

In order to create dapps, developers write programs, called smart contracts, and deploy this code to the Ethereum blockchain. These dapps are essentially large constructions of smart contracts that can be set in motion if and when specific outcomes are met.

 

Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum employs Proof of Work (PoW) mining to power its blockchain.

 

However, the network is in the process of migrating towards Ethereum 2.0, at which time it plans to alter its consensus mechanism to an alternative called Proof of Stake (PoS).

 

Under this model, any user who owns a minimum of 32 ETH could lock those funds in a contract and earn rewards for solving computations needed to add new blocks to the blockchain. 

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Cardano

ADA is the main cryptocurrency powering Cardano, is minted every block and distributed to slot leaders as rewards for verifying transactions.

 

Like many other cryptocurrencies, the supply of ADA tokens is limited, meaning that according to the software’s rules there will only ever be 45 billion ADA.

 

In early 2021, 31 billion ADA were in circulation, with the remaining 14 billion scheduled to be issued through minting.

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Ethereum

Ether (ETH) is the main cryptocurrency powering Ethereum. Similar to Bitcoin, ETH is minted in every block and distributed to its miners.

 

However, where Bitcoin has a limited supply, Ethereum does not place a limit on the amount of ETH that can be minted, and its supply is programmed to increase by 4.5% each year.

Notably, changes to the monetary policy are proposed by developers and voted on by nodes and miners running the software.

 

The Ethereum blockchain is also powered by another cryptographic function called “gas,” which is a special computational unit used for the computation fees. Of note, the more complex the computation, the more gas a given program will require.

Useful resources

If you are interested in learning more about Cardano and Ethereum, please visit Kraken’s What is Cardano? and What is Ethereum? pages.

 

If you want to learn more about the consensus mechanisms that power each blockchain, then the Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake page is where you want to go!

 

Want more in depth information on specific cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects? If so, visit our Learn Center to further your education on this ever-growing space.