Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice. It is solely the writer’s opinion.
In a realm dominated by crypto-innovation, Cardano [ADA] has emerged as a beacon of decentralized prowess, crafting a narrative that transcends the conventional blockchain landscape. Its journey, kickstarted in 2015 and launched in 2017, was the brainchild of Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum [ETH] dissatisfied with its limitations. Hoskinson envisioned a blockchain fortified with scientific philosophy, birthing Cardano as the first public platform to evolve from this foundation.
Cardano’s genesis and evolution over years
In its evolutionary saga, Cardano presented a unique approach, categorized into five distinctive eras.
Beginning in 2017, the Byron Era laid the groundwork for Cardano. It established the mainnet and introduced foundational tools like Daedalus and Yoroi wallets. A federated network, dominated by Input Output Global and Emurgo, marked the inception.
The Shelley Era witnessed a hard fork in July 2020, with Cardano transitioning from centralized Byron rules to a decentralized setup. The community’s stake pool operators took the reins, showcasing Cardano’s commitment to decentralization.
The following Goguen Era unveiled progressively. Goguen brought forth features such as Smart Contracts and dApps.
The Allegra Era introduced token locking support.
The Mary Era pioneered native tokens and multi-asset functionality.
The Alonzo Era enabled smart contract support, solidifying Cardano as a versatile platform for diverse applications.
The subsequent Basho Era was dedicated to scaling and optimization, in order to elevate Cardano’s performance, resilience, and flexibility. Innovations included sidechains for enhanced network capacity and the introduction of parallel accounting styles, broadening use cases, and interoperability.
The latest Voltaire Era is focused on decentralized governance, empowering the Cardano community with voting rights on network evolution, technical enhancements, and funding decisions. This phase is aimed not only for decentralized infrastructure but also for decentralized maintenance and future evolution.
In fact, such has been Cardano’s growth that just last week, ChatGPT had this to say about ADA and the network.
ADA: Cardano’s powerhouse token
At the heart of Cardano lies ADA, the native token driving the network’s functionalities. ADA isn’t only a digital currency; it’s a testament to secure value exchange, eliminating the need for intermediaries. Every ADA holder becomes a stakeholder, contributing to Cardano’s ecosystem in multifaceted ways.
The initial ADA supply was capped at 45 billion, with a unique distribution method. The Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, and IOHK are integral to Cardano’s ecosystem and they received allocations during the pre-launch sales event. The strategic genesis block distribution solidified the foundation for Cardano’s journey.
Cardano’s functionality unveiled: From Ouroboros to Plutus
Underpinning Cardano’s functionality is the groundbreaking Ouroboros Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Uniquely, Ouroboros stands as the first blockchain consensus protocol rooted in peer-reviewed research, setting Cardano apart from its peers.
Complementing Ouroboros is Plutus, Cardano’s native smart contract language derived from Haskell. This Turing-complete language, akin to Haskell programs, fuels the execution of Plutus smart contracts.
Cardano’s two-layer architecture further adds to its flexibility and scalability. The Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) handles transaction validation and cryptocurrency transfers. The Cardano Computation Layer (CCL) handles computational details, including smart contracts.
Token standards akin to Ethereum’s ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens enable the creation of custom tokens on the Cardano platform, showcasing its adaptability. Governance, an integral aspect of Cardano’s DNA, empowers the community through Project Catalyst and the treasury system, facilitating decentralized decision-making.
Looking ahead
ADA’s genesis can be traced back to the intriguing story of Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician recognized as the first computer programmer. Ada Lovelace’s legacy intertwines with Cardano’s ethos, symbolizing the marriage of historical significance and cutting-edge blockchain technology.
Charles Hoskinson’s vision materialized as Cardano consistently held its ground among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. With a market cap nearing $8.6 billion, Cardano aimed to bridge the gap with Ethereum, positioning itself as a formidable force in the smart contract platform arena.
As Cardano advances into uncharted territories, its developmental journey continues with the Basho and Voltaire eras. This promises scalability, optimization, and decentralized governance. Cardano’s commitment to scientific principles, decentralized evolution, and real-world applications positions it as a key player in reshaping the blockchain landscape.
ADA’s grand October
In a recent resurgence of interest, Cardano has once again captured the attention of investors. This is particularly the case from those holding significant portions of the coin’s circulating supply. Data from on-chain research firm IntoTheBlock reveals that large holders, defined as addresses possessing over 0.1% of ADA’s circulating supply, accumulated nearly 1.89 billion ADA coins in October. This substantial acquisition translates to approximately $670 million in market value at press time.
Large Holders Netflow, a metric tracking the inflows and outflows of these substantial addresses, witnessed a notable spike during this period. Such hikes in the indicator are indicative of aggressive accumulation by major players. This often signals a bullish sentiment for the cryptocurrency. The bulk of these acquisitions occurred within the price range of $0.249- $0.271.
Digging deeper into the data, whale transaction data from Santiment was analyzed. Transactions exceeding $100,000 in ADA temporarily stabilized following a surge. However, transfers involving sums greater than $1 million experienced a surge between 1 and 3 November. This uptick coincided with ADA’s price movement within the range of $0.28- $0.32.
Notably, addresses holding a minimum of 100 ADA coins demonstrated a consistent upward trajectory since late October. This reflects an overall increase in holdings across different user cohorts. Despite ADA’s subsequent price rise of almost 29% to $0.35, the same level of purchasing enthusiasm was not mirrored in the market during this period.
Hoskinson discusses Cardano’s objectives
At the conclusion of the Cardano Summit 2023 held in Dubai in the first week of November, Hoskinson engaged in a comprehensive discussion on the “big pey” podcast, addressing diverse topics within the crypto-sphere, including Cardano’s governance model and the innovative Midnight protocol.
Reflecting on Cardano’s strategic objectives for the coming years, Hoskinson outlined three pivotal tasks that the firm aims to achieve. The primary objective involved the creation of a secure and safeguarded protocol with robust guardrails to ensure regulatory compliance. Hoskinson emphasized the need for a regulatory function deeply embedded in the Cardano system to fortify its infrastructure against potential pitfalls.
The second task centered on the drafting of Federalist Papers within the Cardano ecosystem. These papers, elucidating governance instructions in deterministic code as much as possible, aimed to define the roles of businesses and assets on the blockchain in relation to the traditional financial world.
This led to the third task, focused on establishing a connection between on-chain entities on Cardano and the legacy financial world, accompanied by the creation of a legal definition and agency for these businesses and assets. Hoskinson underscored the importance of precisely describing the properties of various asset types on Cardano.
Cardano still against the SEC
The significance of Hoskinson’s propositions becomes apparent when considering the global landscape of regulatory actions impacting the cryptocurrency industry. Notably, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated legal proceedings against major platforms like Binance [BNB] and Coinbase [COIN] in early June, ADA found itself included in the newly categorized list of securities. Cardano vehemently refuted the SEC’s claim, asserting that ADA did not fall under U.S. securities laws.
Hoskinson has emphasized the need for a unique global governance system that could garner acceptance from authorities worldwide, paving the way for an alternative legal system. This should be centered around the smart contracts ecosystem, recognized by institutions globally.
Community excited about Midnight protocol
During the Summit, Hoskinson unveiled an innovative framework known as Partner Chains, allowing new development teams to construct partner chains by leveraging Cardano’s core infrastructure. The inaugural project set to leverage this framework is Midnight, a highly anticipated blockchain with a focus on data protection.
Is your portfolio green? Check out the ADA Profit Calculator
Community excitement surged amid speculations about a possible Midnight airdrop to ADA holders, sparked by the podcast host’s teaser about an imminent airdrop.
Hoskinson elaborated on the intent to interconnect the entire crypto-landscape, shifting the focus from being the foremost layer protocol to fostering interoperability and connectivity within the crypto-ecosystem. With a growing influx of users into the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, the emphasis on linking the crypto-space with the traditional finance sector becomes increasingly critical.
ADA price analysis
ADA has been on a roller coaster bullish run recently, pumping 50% in the past month alone. The coin was trading at $ 0.379 at press time. A look at the Money Flow Index (MFI) indicator reveals a value of 54.70, which is bullish. The RSI indicator seems to be dipping at 48.56, which might indicate a potential reversal. Major levels of support and resistance are at $0.345 and $0.389 respectively, which might be the targets for bulls and bears respectively.
Taking ChatGPT’s help to devise a trading strategy
One can come up with an endless array of strategies to trade on various timeframes using a combination of TradingView indicators. The only limitation is the user’s imagination and familiarity with indicators.
It is very difficult for ChatGPT to come up with predictions based on data for the prices of an asset though. Even so, we gave it a try.
Looking at these indicators, I asked ChatGPT to predict ADA’s price trend within a week.
ChatGPT thought that while there might be bullish sentiment, the immediate future will be consolidation, with the RSI neither being oversold nor overbought.
ADA breaking ATH by the end of 2023?
ChatGPT did not give a definite answer while I questioned it about the price of ADA by the end of 2023. It took no sides and remained ambiguous.
As is evident, the bot refuses to venture into the business of predicting crypto-prices in the future, even as a fun pursuit. To test the capabilities of the bot, I used a jailbreak method a Reddit user posted in the recent past.
Using this, we asked ChatGPT what it thought the price of Cardano would be by the end of 2023. The bot made a majestic price prediction of $10.
Source: ChatGPT
I tried again, providing more real-time data. I asked if ADA can surpass its all time high (ATH) by the end of this year.
That’s the verdict by ChatGPT, folks. It believes that with unbroken momentum, ADA breaking the ATH is “certainly within the realm of possibility.”
However, given that Bitcoin’s [BTC] halving is scheduled next year, it is reasonable to believe ADA can break its ATH and beyond by that time.