There are so many cryptocurrency options like Cardano (ADA) out there that it can be difficult to determine which ones work and why. But focusing on this one, is it something worth your time researching and investing in?
Bitcoin and Ethereum are the ones that you most often hear about, but other coins like Binance or Dogecoin are becoming more prominent, and you should pay attention to them.
Cardano or, more closely, ADA is one of those currencies you should be looking out for if your goal is to find a low-cost cryptocurrency that you can invest in without losing your time, money, and effort.
But how do you invest in something that you don’t know anything about? Let’s answer the first question we asked: by doing research, and yes, it is worth your time and energy.
Many questions surround this currency but mostly blockchain, especially considering it is relatively new compared to the original cryptos available in the market. However, what about going over the most important aspects?
We truly want to help, so expect us to answer more than what Cardano is how it truly works.
Simple Question: What Is Cardano (ADA)?
It is not as difficult to understand as you might think. It is very similar to another cryptocurrency.
Let’s simply say that ADA/Cardano is a digital currency that can be used for sending and receiving funds or to store value.
You must know that ADA refers to the cryptocurrency and runs on the Cardano Blockchain. You can therefore consider them both to be a bit different or divided.
Cardano’s blockchain is the first decentralized network of its kind. It is based on mathematical and scientific principles. Experts took the time to design it to ensure the highest performance.
The blockchain allows smart contracts to be created, which can allow for decentralized protocols or applications.
Cardano isn’t trying to stop global regulators. Instead, it is creating a blockchain with regulation as its goal to ensure everyone can have access to financial services.
To understand the workings of Cardano’s cryptocurrency platform, it is important to be aware that Cardano is built on the Ouroboros consensus protocol.
Cardano created Ouroboros during the foundation phase. It is the first PoS protocol that has been proven secure, informed, and supported academically.
The research framework anchors the Cardano roadmap’s development phases or eras. It includes peer-reviewed insights as well as evidence-based methods that enable progress towards and achieving milestones in relation to future directions for the ADA token or blockchain network.
Who Created It? – Charles Hoskinson
It takes more than reading about a currency’s history, how it works and what you can expect to get from it.
We like to pay attention to the creator of crypto, not just the cryptocurrency itself but also the platform that made it possible and how he came up with the idea.
Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician who was also the brain behind creating ADA/Cardano. He was born November 5, 1987, and is only 33 years old.
He attended both the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory. Then he moved to cryptography through industry exposure.
His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups: Invictus Innovations, the famous Ethereum, and IOHK, while also being relevant in public and private sectors by holding several posts.
His curriculum also includes the fact that he is the founder chairman for the Bitcoin Foundation’s education panel, and he established the Cryptocurrency Research Group.
Charles’s current projects include teaching people about cryptocurrency and advocating for decentralization.
He also works to make cryptographic software more accessible to mainstream users. Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency, was created by his team in September 2017. Its main purpose is to address the problems that cryptocurrencies are currently facing.
What Inspired Him to Create Cardano and ADA?
Hoskinson saw the need for a standardized blockchain that could scale during the initial years of Ethereum and noticed that this particular network and crypto weren’t going to aim for this improvement or factor.
As a result, he began to think about scientific methods to create a Blockchain. Jeremy Wood, a former employee of Ethereum, was also searching for a better platform to create smart contracts and blockchains.
They began to investigate Cardano’s current form and what they could do to improve it in order to reduce the stigma surrounding cryptocurrency.
Cardano & ADA Background: What You Need to Know
The platform and coin are new compared to other options such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. However, it has a lot of history.
Even though the platform was launched in 2017, its development began in 2015 when after a dispute with Vitalik Buterin, Hoskinson was fired as a contributor to Ethereum.
Charles wanted venture capital to create a for-profit entity, while Buterin wanted to run a non-profit.
After leaving, he co-founded IOHK, a blockchain-engineering company whose primary business is the development of Cardano, alongside the Cardano Foundation and Emurgo.
The development of the Cardano protocol ecosystem is a shared responsibility by the Cardano Foundation and IOHK. The Cardano Foundation is a legal custodian and non-profit organization.
The foundation works to increase the visibility of the protocol on the international stage and fosters use-case opportunities. It also connects with academia, regulators, and policymakers.
IOHK is a technology company and software engineering firm that created Cardano. It has a research arm that promotes blockchain education. They also collaborate closely with academic partners to help further their educational mission and increase the Cardano protocol’s long-term scalability.
This is achieved by using peer-reviewed scientific literature that informs platform updates prior to their implementation.
EMURGO is a global technology partner that drives the commercial adoption of Cardano’s protocol. It integrates businesses across many sectors into its blockchain system.
Cardano was founded through an initial coin listing. Its market capitalization at its debut was $600 million.
It had a market capitalization in excess of $10 billion at the end of 2017 and a short-term valuation of $33 Billion by 2018.
Its value fell to $10 billion because of tightening in crypto markets. Now, where did the name come from?
Gerolamo Cardano is the source of “Cardano,” while Ada Lovelace was the inspiration for the currency. This 19th-century countess was also an English mathematician and is known as the first computer programmer.
Cardano Blockchain Architecture
Two core components make up the Cardano blockchain. The Cardano Settlement Layer is a unit of account. It allows token holders to send and receive ADA instantly with minimal transaction fees.
The Cardano Computational layer (CCL), a collection of protocols that is the backbone of the blockchain, allows for advanced functionality such as identity recognition and blacklisting and ensures security and compliance.
The Cardano open-source code uses Haskell, which is a secure and universally recognized programming language.
Cardano is currently working on Ouroboros, a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain protocol for consensus. This consensus mechanism allows ADA to be sent and collected easily and securely and ensures smart contracts’ safety and security on Cardano’s blockchain.
Ouroboros rewards token holders for staking their ADA to network and also offers rewards. On the other hand, a look and simple explanation of the system would be as follows:
- Randomly, the network selects a few nodes that have the potential to mine new blocks. These are called slot leaders.
- Each slot is known as an epoch.
- Slot leaders can mine their epoch or sub-partition. Each participant who assists in mining an epoch, or a part of it, receives a reward.
- An epoch is able to be divided infinitely. Cardano’s blockchain can be divided infinitely, which means it is theoretically infinitely scalable. This allows for transactions to be run without any bottleneck.
Ouroboros’ mathematical security when choosing validators for blockchain is the greatest advantage. Others claim they randomly select block validators, but this cannot be confirmed.
On the other hand, Ouroboros has a proven method to select a validator randomly and guarantee that token holders of ADA to the Cardano Blockchain have a fair chance to mine a block and receive the associated reward.
This eliminates the need for excessive computational power that is common in proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain networks. It also guarantees an objectively fair stake model that isn’t found in any other PoS protocol.
With this in mind, you must also know about the Daedalus wallet.
Unlike other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, Cardano has its own wallet to store the ADA cryptocurrency.
The Daedalus wallet gives users more than a wallet. They also run a full blockchain node that allows them to have complete control over their funds. This will allow them to monitor the Cardano blockchain and ensure transparency.
Daedalus is the only wallet that ADA holders have access to for the Cardano staking program.
As mentioned previously, Cardano uses a PoS blockchain protocol so token holders can earn rewards for delegating ADA or managing a staking pool within Daedalus. Cardano (ADA) holders have the chance to earn cryptocurrency and support the network.
Cardano (ADA) – Why It’s Worth Your Money
Cryptocurrencies are often used in a similar way to purchase products or items. But people who are familiar with the industry know that they can be used for other purposes.
They weren’t created to be used for direct spending like any other currency.
Although you can use ADA like any other cash or as a way to get value transferred, the primary uses of ADA are elsewhere.
Cardano’s PoS Blockchain Protocol is one of its core principles. This protocol allows ADA tokens to be staked on the blockchain. It also allows stake pool operators and stakeholders to verify transactions on the blockchain.
What do you get from this job? Simple. Cardano’s crypto offers a simple solution. The platform rewards contributors with more ADA tokens. The system of staking also helps maintain the security of the blockchain.
Cardano’s blockchain project is unique in that ADA can be used to vote. How? It is token holders who vote for protocol changes and not miners.
Cardano crypto owners can vote using their ADA to approve any change to the Cardano Blockchain. The cryptocurrency’s owners can all participate in its development.
Charles plans to use ADA in the future for the Cardano-based contract platform.
Developers will be able to use ADA to develop smart contracts and other applications on the secure, decentralized blockchain. Without ADA, these applications won’t be able to be executed.
What You Need to Know
With lots of information being processed, we get you might be a bit overwhelmed. Therefore, look forward to this list of what you need to prioritize and what to take notes of:
- Cardano is very energy efficient.
Cardano’s eco-friendly cryptocurrency is a big advantage. Here’s a comparison of how much energy Cardano and Bitcoin use each year.
- Cardano: Six gigawatt-hours.
- Bitcoin: 13 terawatt-hours.
- Ethereum: 50 Terawatt Hours.
One terawatt equals 1,000 gigawatts. Bitcoin consumes about the same amount of energy as Argentina with its 45 million inhabitants. Cardano consumes as much as 600 U.S. houses.
This is possible since proof of stake reduces the number of devices that can verify transactions at once, thus decreasing energy consumption.
Bitcoin and Ethereum, on the other hand, use the proof-of-work model. The proof of work model doesn’t limit the number of devices involved and can result in extremely high energy consumption.
- Cardano’s founder helped to create Ethereum.
Along with Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson was part of the team that founded Ethereum.
Hoskinson developed Cardano in 2015. It shares many similarities to Ethereum. Both Cardano, as well as Ethereum, are programmable blockchains that others can use to create apps. They both use smart contracts.
- It can handle large transactions.
The biggest cryptocurrency coins have had difficulty scaling up. Bitcoin processes five transactions per second while Ethereum processes 15. This results in slower transactions and higher fees. Visa processes approximately 1,700 transactions per second.
Cardano processed 257 transactions per second in tests. It also plans to add Hydra to its blockchain. It could process up to 1 million transactions per second using this technology.
- Cardano can be used in many different ways.
Cardano is a highly ambitious project. There are many possible uses of its technology in a wide range of industries.
Cardano’s partnership is with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, and this gives us a real-world example. Cardano’s blockchain can store tamperproof records for five million students in Ethiopia.
Students will be able to access their records and achievements on the blockchain when they pursue higher education or jobs.
These are some other uses for Cardano in various sectors:
- Health Care: Cardano’s blockchain can authenticate pharmaceutical drugs to prevent counterfeiting.
- Finance: Cardano is a document that identifies people and can be used to prove creditworthiness in developing countries.
- Agriculture: Blockchain technology provides reliable supply chain tracking for farmers and haulers.
- It requires a research-first approach.
Cardano’s development process is peer-reviewed since the blockchain was built by engineers and academic experts who specialize in cryptography and blockchain technology.
Cardano is a cryptocurrency that has slow, steady development. It does not make rapid changes. This is because of the review system. However, Cardano’s peer review system has the advantage of catching security issues before they become more serious.
Cardano vs. Bitcoin: Which One Is Better?
While both Bitcoin and Cardano are popular cryptocurrencies, we will be addressing some differences in this segment.
Cardano has an independent team that is responsible for assessing its cryptocurrency system. Meanwhile, Bitcoin users are largely unrecognized. Satoshi Nakamoto is the collective name for its entire team of developers.
The speed of these two blockchain networks is another difference. Cardano is the fastest cryptocurrency transaction per second, and Bitcoin may lose this battle.
These two cryptocurrencies seem to have no competition at the moment, as Bitcoin is more powerful than any other due to its value and how it scaled over the years.
Bitcoin, the oldest cryptocurrency, enjoys a great reputation on the market. Cardano has also achieved many milestones in this area but still lacks reliability and the option to grow.
However, when we put them together, it is a matter of preference and in the option of betting for one or two of the options. For example, despite Bitcoin’s incredible performance compared to other currencies, Cardano continues to rise to the top because of its PoS and how it is building up in uses and networks.
A Peek into the Future: Cardano
Cardano has many benefits for its owners, making it a good investment in the long term. High-profile investors have already praised its performance.
The network provides its own cryptocurrency framework that comes with many factors for its holders to believe in its potential to be the best. Cardano is unique in that it accelerates the future cryptocurrency.
According to Crypto Research Report, a blockchain analysis company, Cardano will grow as more investors place their trust in ADA’s framework.
Analysts predict that Cardano’s performance, popularity, and persistence will increase by 2025. This will allow it to reach new heights.
It shows a stronger network structure than other ecosystems and proves that there is a need for greater progress and better outcomes in this field.
Investing in ADA or Do You Have Better Opportunities?
Cryptos can be great or terrible investments, depending on whether you’re looking to make money with them. It is difficult to manage market volatility, especially when new coins like Cardano are introduced.
However, overall cryptocurrencies are a great investment, but they can also be very risky because you could lose more than what you can make.
We prefer renting websites. This is why, even though it’s not a business that can make you $10k+ per month when you start, it is a steady and profitable option that will pay off over the long term.
This business model is focused on creating websites for small businesses and other companies. This is done to generate leads through ranking websites on Google and then converting visitors.
How can you make money? You will get a commission for each lead you generate.
Renting websites is a passive source of income. It is possible to forget about your website and still make money.
Imagine creating several websites and renting them all out. It’s easy money. However, you will need to invest a lot of time and effort when you start your business.
If you’re keen to join the party, we recommend you begin a training program. This will help you go from zero to being able to build an empire.
Where can you find the info? This top training is waiting for you…
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.