Category Archives: Cardano

All the different views on Contingent Staking

There has been an incredible amount of chatter within the Cardano community about pros and cons of contingent staking. Here I attempt to go through every single argument in an attempt to make sense of it all. I won’t attribute all the points back to each source but I will list the sources I reliedContinue reading “All the different views on Contingent Staking”

Transactions within Transactions

It’s frustrating that TPS is the measure a lot of the wider crypto community look at as a measure of blockchain performance and yet it’s fraught with so many pitfalls and ways to manipulate it. People often confuse TPS with max TPS – the former being a measure of usage of the chain, and theContinue reading “Transactions within Transactions”

Liquidity Incentive Programs

The Cardano DeFi ecosystem is finally starting to take off. Sure we’ve had a few DEXEs launch, but until Vasil it’s fair to say Cardano wasn’t yet ready for DeFi. This is no longer the case. With Vasil in the rear view mirror we are seeing major DeFi projects move towards mainnet. The first ofContinue reading “Liquidity Incentive Programs”

The 5 min intro to Cardano

This blog post is aimed at those who want to quickly get up to speed on Cardano. I’m going to distill it down to only the essentials. About the chain Famous for being the slow moving tortoise, Cardano has taken a research first approach to blockchain development, arguing that it was necessary given the complexContinue reading “The 5 min intro to Cardano”

The case against Bitcoin’s security (vs. POS)

This is the second part of my trilogy of articles. The first being The case against Bitcoin’s energy usage, and the last one being The Case against Bitcoin’s governance. In this post I will examine the view that a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) cryptocurrency, specifically Cardano, is fundamentally less secure than an energy hungry Proof-Of-Work (PoW) coin,Continue reading “The case against Bitcoin’s security (vs. POS)”

The case against Bitcoin’s energy usage

There is an emerging schism between Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies such as Cardano. Some of it is down to differences of opinion around security, some of it is around blockchain utility, but the most notable difference is around energy consumption. In the past year I’ve seen Bitcoiner’s apply gravity bending logicContinue reading “The case against Bitcoin’s energy usage”

Crypto’s dirty little secret

The crypto world is claiming that DeFi will disrupt traditional finance, yet conveniently overlooking a glaring issue in the DeFi space that will significantly hamper adoption. To make it worse, it’s a problem where short-term greed fuels long term complacency. But does Cardano have the answer? Now while in some of these cases the hacksContinue reading “Crypto’s dirty little secret”

Maladex (Part II) – fragmented liquidity, price curves, and scalability

Part 2 of my walk through of the Maladex whitepaper where we look at several innovative features, from a fragmented liquidity pool, dynamic price curves, and an efficient and fast architecture that takes advantage of Cardano’s design Link: https://youtu.be/K5_q7nfeqsM

Maladex (Part 1) – Intro to DEXEs, Liquidity, and disrupting TradFi (video)

In this video I take you through sections 1-3 of the (very detailed!) Maladex whitepaper. If you don’t understand things like what a DEX or a liquidity pool is, or want to get a taste of how Maladex wish to disrupt the finance industry then this video is for you. Watch here

IOHK’s tour of Africa

Note: This is a slightly abridged version of what was originally published on my YouTube channel As you probably know, Charles Hoskinson and IOHK have been doing a tour of the African continent, discussing potential blockchain based solutions with a number of world leaders. The most recent tweet from Charles said “We signed an MOUContinue reading “IOHK’s tour of Africa”

Public blockchain based digital IDs could be a game changer

When it comes to a good use of blockchain technology, digital identities are near the top of the list. While the DeFi world is all about anonymous trading and (likely) shady practices, the RealFi (real world finance) world, as well as the Enterprise world, require companies knowing who they are transacting with and whether someoneContinue reading “Public blockchain based digital IDs could be a game changer”

The coming of the Cardano Age

Cardano has been making headlines for different reasons lately. After shooting up to become the third biggest crypto project in terms of market cap, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum, it then found itself embroiled in a debate about whether it can handle concurrent transactions (short answer is yes). After a multi-year wait, Cardano is setContinue reading “The coming of the Cardano Age”

Pool Wars III – My experience as a stakepool operator

This is the last article of the Pool Wars series. If you haven’t read Pool Wars I and Pool Wars II already I suggest giving them a read. We’ve explored why you should delegate to a small stake pool, how to find a small stake pool, and that pools with less than 10m ADA offerContinue reading “Pool Wars III – My experience as a stakepool operator”

Pool Wars II – How to delegate to a small pool

This is part II of my previous blog post on why you should pick a small pool to delegate to. If you haven’t already, I suggest giving it a read. Since that time I’ve had two months of learning what it’s like to be a small pool operator, to the point that I will haveContinue reading “Pool Wars II – How to delegate to a small pool”

Energy efficient crypto – Is Proof-Of-Work, out of work?

Update: After writing this post someone informed me that I should listen to this podcast. I did, and it’s good. I’ve updated my conclusion at the end in light of this. Let me state this up front – this article is sure to divide the crypto community. In fact divide might be the wrong word;Continue reading “Energy efficient crypto – Is Proof-Of-Work, out of work?”

The alphabet soup of the Cardano origin story

Let me begin by saying that all this stemmed from me hearing about Emurgo’s Cardano Blockchain Developer program, and wondering for the 10th time that I’ve been involved in the Cardano community, who exactly Emurgo are, which led me down a rabbit hole of the similar sounding Ergo, as well as the Cardano Foundation, IOG/IOHK,Continue reading “The alphabet soup of the Cardano origin story”

Pool Wars I – Why you should delegate to a small pool

If you are new to Cardano you may not be aware of the important role small stake pools play in the Cardano ecosystem. If you’re not sure what a stake pool is, I recommend reading my previous post, Staking – Simply Explained. Proof-Of-Stake networks rely on pool operators to keep the system running and itContinue reading “Pool Wars I – Why you should delegate to a small pool”

“If Charles died tomorrow ADA would die with it that’s how decentralized ADA currently is.”

written by ReddSpark, May 2021 This post is inspired by this tweet by @BPEOSIO. The full tweet contains two additional arguments but I’m going to concentrate on only the first argument in this blogpost: If Charles died tomorrow ADA would die with it that’s how decentralised ADA currently is. Peer reviews have there place butContinue reading ““If Charles died tomorrow ADA would die with it that’s how decentralized ADA currently is.””

“Cardano is all marketing and no deliverable”

This post was inspired by this tweet from @TheBostonhabah. Now before I begin, let me say I pride myself on calling out valid criticism, rather than being a rabid moon boy, so this post may or may not be a glowing praise of Cardano – let’s find out. Ok so let’s start with the fullContinue reading ““Cardano is all marketing and no deliverable””