It all began in the ether. Ethereum was launched in July of 2015. Bitcoin had been around for six years by then, but the whole cryptocurrency world still remained a niche affair.

Bitcoin was designed (and so it remains today) purely as a digital currency. When Ethereum came along, it had a solid ace up its crypto sleeve: smart contracts, right out of the box. This meant that…

Cardano’s development has been conceived as a journey involving five overlapping development themes, each of which is underpinned by a consensus protocol – Ouroboros. As Cardano evolves, the protocol must also change as fresh functionality and utility are brought onto the platform. Upgrades require gradual changes to the network protocol and in this article, we will explain how…

In the previous article, we identified the objectives of the reward scheme in Cardano, and we gave general guidelines regarding engaging with the system.

Taking a more high-level view, we will examine from first principles, the general problem of reward sharing in blockchain systems. To recall, the two overarching objectives of any resource-based consensus system is to…

The deployment of Shelley on mainnet in July opened up a new world of staking and delegation for Cardano. Since then, we have seen a groundswell of support from the community, with the creation of 1,200+ stake pools. Many have thrived and taken an early vantage position in the community in terms of visibility or controlled stake – or both. Equally, some pools are yet to make…

Stake pool operations lie at the heart of Cardano decentralization, enabling servers to reach a consensus agreement across the network. Our groundbreaking Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus protocol allows pool operators to reach agreement on the validity of transactions and sign a block, which is then immutably recorded on the Cardano blockchain.

On the Shelley path to…