A cryptocurrency which seemingly came out of nowhere is on the right track to take out the number two position and potentially even kick bitcoin out of its prime spot.
Confidence is building around cardano, a blockchain invented in 2015, after it overtook binance to come third on the crypto ladder, behind bitcoin and ethereum.
Experts think the coin has set its sights on surpassing ethereum next.
Last week, cardano (known as ADA in the crypto market) surged to a market capitalisation of $111.23 billion, officially overtaking binance which stood at $99.38 billion.
According to cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko , cardano has continued to skyrocket in the past week, rising by 35 per cent to $123.36 billion at time of writing.
Over the past 30 days, the coin has risen to nearly 187 per cent.
It’s believed cardano’s new-found popularity is from of the announcement of a major upgrade to the network called the Alonzo hard fork.
The coin’s more environmentally-friendly processing abilities, and its debut on the Japanese market, are also adding to the fervour.
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The crypto market in US dollars.Source: CoinGecko RELATED: Bitcoin boss may have faked death to escape with fortune
Cardano is currently selling for $3.85.
Although that’s significantly less than its rival ethereum, which is sitting on $4429.23 per coin, experts have predicted that major gains are on the horizon.
Independent crypto analyst and YouTuber Lark Davis said that if cardano quadruples its value, which is possible given its current gains, it would hit the same market cap as ethereum.
And if it rose by 10 times, then it would have be neck and neck with the largest ever cryptocurrency, bitcoin.
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An expert’s prediction on crypto.What is Cardano?
Perhaps it’s not surprising that cardano is posing a very real threat to ethereum, considering that it was founded by someone who also created the ether token.
Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson created cardano in 2015 and launched it in 2017.
The coin is known as ADA on the crypto market, which is an homage to Augusta “Ada” King, or Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century British countess largely regarded as the first computer programmer.
She was also the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron.
Cardano has just hit the Japanese market.What is the Alonzo hard fork update?
Last week, cardano announced the Alonzo hard fork which caused interest in the coin to hit an all-time high.
The upgrade allows for smart contracts to happen, which are pieces of computer code that can automatically execute when the right parameters are set.
That means once the Alonzo update is complete, anyone can make their own smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain, paving the way for native decentralised applications (dapps), according to CoinDesk .
Decentralised applications allows people to borrow, lend and trade with each other instantly, without any interference from a third party such as waiting on a bank to make the transaction.
The Alonzo hard fork is the third major update in cardano’s current stage.
The token has five main stages of development, also called “eras” which aim to expand the network and make it run as smoothly as possible.
They are named after famous writers from the Romantic movement of the 1800s: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, Voltaire.
Alonzo is the last major update for the Shelley era and moves the platform towards the Goguen era.
The Alonzo update is expected to begin sometime during the third quarter of this year.
Other reasons for the price spike
A cryptocurrency which seemingly came out of nowhere is on the right track to take out the number two position and potentially even kick bitcoin out of its prime spot.Picture: Ozan Kose / AFP Another reason for cardano’s surge is that from Wednesday, the coin will be listed on Japan’s exchange.
Japan’s criteria to enter the market is considered one of the strictest in the world, which is another win for cardano.
Bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin are also on the Japanese market.
Cardano is also hugely popular because its proof of stake blockchain model is considered much more environmentally-friendly than any other mainstream cryptocurrency.
Proof of stake works means coins are randomly allocated to users, cutting down the energy needed for a transaction.
In contrast, bitcoin and ethereum use a proof of work mechanism which sees a global network of computers running simultaneously to facilitate a transaction.
Such a method requires an enormous amount of energy, with Bitcoinenergyconsumption.com estimating that bitcoin generated over 57 million tonnes of CO2 in a year – the same carbon footprint as a small European country.
Originally published as Cardano tipped to overtake Ethereum as second-largest cryptocurrency .
