• Cardano has been hailed by the cryptocurrency community as the brilliant whiz kid since its launch in 2017.
• The project has an array of exceptional qualities that have endeared it to users and the crypto ecosystem at large.
• If Cardano lives up to its expectation, it could lead to the crossing of the $10 or even $25 mark.
• Cardano is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the world and trades at $1.26 at the moment.

Cardano is the favorite child of the cryptocurrency family and everyone raves about the impressive qualities that the project has. This has led some analysts to state that Cardano may be the successor to Ethereum if the project ever lives up to its potential.

So far the project has adopted a slow and steady pace in the attainment of its objectives but given its ‘prodigy’ tag, it seems the community would rather Cardano start delivering on its promises now.

Cardano – The Prodigy

Cardano garnered significant steam after its launch due to several reasons. The project was founded by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum who had a wealth of considerable experience coming into the project. Having learned from the successes and failures of Ethereum, Cardano was designed to do things differently.

It ditched the Proof-of-Work consensus model and adopted a Proof-Of-Stake protocol named Ouroboros which uses less energy. This move was widely hailed as genius given the recent uproar that was caused by Bitcoin’s environmental impact.

The use of design principles to solve the problems that plague blockchain technology such as scalability and interoperability has earned it the title of being a prodigy that is poised to change the entire landscape. 

By combining a layer for settlements that keeps track of the transactions and another layer that allows for smart contracts and building applications, Cardano offered something unique for the space.

What If Cardano Lives Up To Its Expectation?

Although Cardano has not fulfilled all its promises because of the slow and steady approach that it adopts, the entire ecosystem could easily change if it did. The first thing that will be transformed will be the value of the asset.

At the moment, ADA is trading at $1.26 and this figure could easily rise to $10 or even $25 if its potential is realized. At these figures, Cardano might have a market capitalization of around $700 billion, flipping Ethereum from second place and giving a stiff challenge to Bitcoin.

At this moment, we may see the exodus of DApps from Ethereum to Cardano and Cardano could serve as the bastion of DeFi should its goals be achieved.

On The Flipside

• Despite holding so much potential as a star child, there is only so much promise it can offer before it has to prove itself in the real world.
• After several conversations about ADA’s bullishness, the asset has not lived up to all of the hype that was generated around it.

The Prodigal Son

There’s a thin line between genius and madness and right now, Cardano is walking that line. The slow pace of Cardano has been attributed to the need to do things differently from its predecessors. 

For instance, Ethereum built the house first and is now going back to the drawing board to fix things while Cardano is focused on building a solid foundation first.

The slow and steady mantra stands as an oddity in the fast-paced cryptocurrency industry where updates are launched and announced in a matter of weeks. This has elicited diverse reactions with one quarter referring to Cardano as a prodigal son after failing to live up to the expectations after all these years.

In recent months, Cardano has been picking up steam with the Alonzo White hard fork being a massive success and has opened the frontiers of smart contract functionality for the network.