A cryptocurrency without a network is like a Ferrari Testa Rossa without an engine: only good for looking at. We’re not here to buy cryptos just to say we have them, because the people who did that have been wiped out since November.
We’re here to make money, and that means buying cryptos that have a job and can get those jobs done.
Now, when it comes to cryptocurrencies that do serious work, Ether (ETH) is up there. It was the first smart-contracts platform, and it’s been the #2 crypto behind Bitcoin (BTC) for basically as long as it’s been around.
But it’s rare for anyone or anything to stay on top forever. The question is which network is next to take the top spot.
Let me tell you which crypto I think is destined to take the lead, and why…
I’m Convinced ADA Is the Future
It’s impossible to say for sure, but my money is on… a crypto that actually has a working network. That rules out Solana (SOL) right off the bat. Unbelievably, this crypto still trades for money. They’ve had seven network failures between November 2021 and this past June. Reliability is a must for a successful crypto. The blockchain is supposed to be indestructible.
If your crypto needs to be constantly maintained by the development team, you might as well be using legacy financial systems – banking.
While Ethereum probably can’t rule forever, and Solana doesn’t have what it takes to replace it, I expect bigger and bigger things from Cardano (ADA), another smart contracts platform crypto that’s closing on Ethereum for the top spot.
“Wanting it” isn’t enough though, so Cardano’s got a pretty compelling plan to compete with and maybe even beat Ethereum’s technology.
Let’s start out with something basic: Input/Output, the team behind Cardano, built it so the network can resist internal tampering better than any other layer-1 crypto protocol out there. That’s not a trivial concern.
Not a lot of regular folks know this, but, on proof-of-work blockchains, a party that controls 51% of all hashrate can theoretically “hijack” a crypto, stopping confirmation of new transactions. This happened several times in the early history of Bitcoin, though those miners had good intentions – they wanted Bitcoin to work, so they didn’t try any shenanigans.
In fact, a person or group that controls as little as 34% of the hashrate could do plenty of damage
The fact that Cardano is resistant to so-called “51% attacks” gives me confidence to buy and use ADA freely – and frequently. No one wants to use a crypto if they think someone will techno-hijack their money.
And that’s where Cardano has what other cryptos don’t. Cardano runs on proof-of-stake, not proof of work. How much influence over the network a given node has is based on how much crypto they’re willing to stake, not how much computing power they apply. This validation method uses way, way less energy than proof-of-work tokens like Bitcoin, so it’s better for the environment too.
ADA Might Have the Hardest-Working Team in Crypto
Cardano is special because its developers created its proof-of-stake code from scratch. Many other cryptos used Bitcoin code modified to use proof-of-stake validation. The thing is, this copied code carries some major weaknesses that make it easier to trick. Not a problem for Cardano.
Cardano’s blockchain continues to stand above the rest. The upcoming Vasil hardfork could push ADA to $1 or even $1.50 with efficiency and ease-of-use improvements.
But earlier this week, crypto-analyst firm Santiment noted that Cardano was the “King of Blockchains” as measured by the frequency of meaningful GitHub code repository activity.
I use my 5 Ts, but Santiment has an interesting take with a lot of merit. They gauge cryptos by the amount of real development that goes into them. It’s a way to easily, objectively measure the dedication and coding chops of the project team.
Some projects will essentially post fluff or hype to their GitHub, which is, of course, total BS. When you’re looking at what developers are doing, you want to see them actually working on the crypto, not just hyping it. Cardano developers are putting in work to improve the network more or less constantly at this point. CryptoGlobe says the team works harder than any other devs on GitHub at this point.
In fact, Cardano celebrated a work milestone this week – 1,760 days without an outage. That’s closing in on five years.
Santiment and CryptoGlobe can see what I see: Cardano’s staffed and run by hard-working programmers with serious skills who take what they do seriously. That satisfies my “T-for-team” metric for cryptos. If you’re into coding, take a look at Cardano’s GitHub repository – I think you’ll like what you see.
And if you’re not into coding, punch up your Coinbase or Kraken account and buy some more ADA. It’s trading above $0.50 right now.
— Nick Black
Source: Money Morning