As of this writing, there are just more than 19,710 cryptocurrencies, with a combined market cap of $1.25 trillion, available to invest in. That is 1,050 more than there were just two months ago.

With that many cryptocurrencies in circulation, it can be difficult to know which ones might be worth taking a closer look at.

After all, no two cryptos are the same. They all make certain promises and appeal to different types of investors. For environmentally conscious cryptocurrency investors, Cardano may offer the greatest advantage.

But there’s more to Cardano than the green advantage. It is also working on ways to enhance the scalability and resilience issues faced by more dominant cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Case in point, Cardano provides 250+ transactions per second compared to 15 for Ethereum and 4.6 for Bitcoin.

What Is Cardano?

Cardano is a third-generation, open-source blockchain platform with a unique decentralized network that was created in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum. Created by cybersecurity and engineering experts, Cardano is working on being faster than Bitcoin and more decentralized, with cheaper transactions and gas fees compared to Ethereum. This makes it the ideal cryptocurrency for developing a huge range of decentralized finance apps, new crypto tokens, games, etc.

Cardano’s native cryptocurrency is ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, a famous 19th century mathematician. ADA is currently priced at $0.5862 and has a market cap of $19.7 billion, making it the sixth largest cryptocurrency. Similar to other cryptocurrencies, the supply of ADA is limited to 45 billion. At the beginning of 2021, 31 billion were in circulation.

Like other cryptocurrencies, ADA can be used as a store of value, to send and receive payments, and for staking and paying transaction fees on Cardano’s network.

What Are Some of the Benefits of Cardano?

Where other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum released white papers to explain their protocol, Cardano didn’t. Instead, it seeks to be a scientifically peer-reviewed blockchain in order to provide the optimal crypto ecosystem.

It does this in two ways. First, it is comprised of two layers: the Cardano Settlement Layer, where all transactions are carried out, and the Cardano Computational Layer, which is used to deploy smart contracts and monitor the network.

The biggest benefit of these two layers is that they interoperate and communicate with each other seamlessly. They can function separately, which allows transactions to be carried out even when the network is computing contracts or carrying out updates.

Another unique attribute of Cardano is its proprietary Ouroboros protocol. An ouroboros, which is shaped like the eternity symbol, is depicted as a snake or dragon that eats its own tail. It represents infinity of time.

To that end, Cardano’s ouroboros proof-of-stake relies on continuity. It is a validation mechanism that uses unique technology and mathematically certified mechanisms that guarantee and support the security and sustainability of any blockchain that uses it. The end result is a protocol that broadcasts a global, permissionless network with minimal energy requirements.

Because of its proprietary proof-of-stake method, Cardano is able to compete with larger cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Instead of consuming massive amounts of computing power and environmental resources to maintain the blockchain, Cardano’s proof-of-stake protocols use tokens as security to keep the platform running.

Cardano may not be as well known as Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that could change over the near term. It allows faster transactions versus Bitcoin and Ethereum, is a scientifically peer-reviewed network, has a higher degree of decentralization, and is more energy efficient.

Investing in Cryptocurrency with Evolve ETFs 

As of this moment, only Bitcoin and Ether are available as ETF investments in Canada. Deciding which cryptocurrency to own and how much to allocate can be overwhelming for many investors. The Evolve Cryptocurrencies ETF (TSX: ETC) is Canada’s first multi-cryptocurrency ETF. ETC is designed to be a one ticket solution to cryptocurrency exposure. It is market cap weighted and rebalanced monthly. It currently holds Bitcoin (TSX: EBIT) and Ether (TSX: ETHR) but as regulators approve other crypto ETFs, they may be added as well. For more information on ETC, visit https://evolveetfs.com/etc/.

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