Can Cardano supplant Ethereum?

Ethereum has seen a majestic rise up the chart over the last few weeks to a high of nearly $4400. A recent dip notwithstanding, all looks rosy for the number two ranked cryptocurrency. However, there are a few sizeable obstacles in the way. Could Cardano continue its own meteoric rise and take a big market share before Ethereum 2.0 is fully implemented? 

It can’t be argued that Ethereum is the king of layer one smart contract blockchains. It has the longest history which has helped it to gather that all-important network effect. However, coming up on the rails is Cardano. Arguably Ethereum’s biggest competitor. With smart contracts soon to be implemented on its blockchain, can it catch up with Ethereum? 

Charles Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum, there in its early beginnings. He left Ethereum to create a different type of blockchain, worried about the future impact of Ethereum’s gas fees among other concerns. The Cardano blockchain uses the proof of stake technology – the same technology that Ethereum is now transiting to in order to solve the fees problem. 

The difference is that Cardano is already there. It’s been extremely slow in development, but this is because this development has followed a scientific peer review process, so every stage has been extensively tested before being implemented. 

Right now, Cardano is working on pushing out the Goguen phase of its road map. This will add smart contract functionality and will see the addition of a multi-currency ledger that will enable users to create natively supported tokens and NFTs. To quote from the Cardano website: 

“The Goguen era represents a step change in the abilities of Cardano, opening the way to the development of enterprise-level, mission-critical, decentralized smart contract applications, with even more exciting things to come during the Basho and Voltaire eras.” 

With all this good news the price of ADA has risen sharply since the beginning of the year with 1,100% gains so far. ADA is currently sat at a price of $2.09 after the recent crypto market dip. Some analysts are calling for $10 by the end of this bull market. With smart contract implementation and the burgeoning of the Cardano ecosystem this might appear a reasonable figure. 

An extremely important consideration for a cryptocurrency looking to achieve network effect is its community. Cardano has this in spades. Hoskinson is a very charismatic leader and the community appears to be hugely loyal.  

Cardano is finally spreading its wings. Smart contracts are just around the corner and the ecosystem is growing. Gas fees are miniscule in comparison with Ethereum and Bitcoin. Is this the time for Cardano to start making inroads into that big Ethereum lead? 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.