Where did Cardano come from?

Cardano was created by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, who were both instrumental in the early shaping of Ethereum. It was while working on Ethereum that Hoskinson realised the need for a network that was more efficient and scalable than the one he was currently working on.

After exiting Ethereum in 2014, Hoskinson approached Wood with his new idea. The two started work on Cardano in 2015 and launched the network as an alternative to Ethereum in 2017, with the intention to make sure it was based on academic rigour and scientific research.

They developed a unique consensus mechanism (the way it validates transactions) known as ‘proof-of-stake’. They believed that this was more energy efficient than the one Ethereum was using at the time, proof-of-work, which is also the same as the one used by Bitcoin.

Hoskinson and Wood do not control the Cardano network, as it’s decentralised and transactions are verified by anonymous third parties. They also don’t control its development, which is managed by three independent entities, namely the Cardano Foundation, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), and EMURGO.

• The Cardano Foundation is a non-profit which oversees and supervises the development of the Cardano blockchain and its ecosystem

• IOHK is an engineering and research company that oversees the continued development of Cardano

• EMURGO is a blockchain technology company responsible for promoting the continued adoption of Cardano