Cardano's development is based on peer-reviewed research. While this slows down development, it helps to prevent bugs and high energy costs from the beginning. Cardano focuses on regions with lesser blockchain and DeFi adoption.

Development started in 2015 and Cardano was launched in September 2017. Alonzo mainnet hard fork went live in September 2021, providing smart contract functionality. In that regards, Cardano also announced a partnership with Chainlink.

Staking rewards are given to delegators and stake pool operators. Current monetary policy keeps rewards stable and prevents the formation of large pool operators. Rewards will increase with growing use of the blockchain.