Cardano and Solana are among the smart contract platforms growing in popularity the most. The term “Ethereum Killer” is often used to describe blockchains that are trying to provide a better alternative to Ethereum. In most cases, this means providing similar smart contract functionality while offering better transaction throughput and lower costs.In this article, we will compare the Cardano and Solana blockchains in terms of TPS, consensus mechanisms, market caps, technologies they have, and more. We will attempt to determine which of these two “Ethereum Killers” is more worthwhile to invest in. Cardano is a blockchain project founded by Charles Hoskinson, who also played a role in the early days of the Ethereum project. The native coin of the Cardano blockchain is called ADA. The consensus mechanism that Cardano uses is Proof-of-Stake, which consumes less energy than Proof-of-Work.The Cardano mainnet was launched in September 2017. The project’s goals include providing financial services to people who have difficulty accessing the banking system, decentralizing financial services, and expanding the benefits of blockchain use. The Cardano project has been especially active in the African market. For example, it has collaborated with the government of Ethiopia.The Cardano mainnet gained smart contract capability with the Alonzo upgrade in 2021. This enabled DeFi protocols to be built on the Cardano network and enabled the network to host new building blocks of the Web3 ecosystem, such as new dApps and P2E (play-to-earn) games. One of Cardano’s goals is to be the most sustainable and eco-friendly blockchain platform. When Ouroboros is improved with an upgrade called Hydra, the scalability of the network is expected to increase significantly.The Ouroboros consensus mechanism, created by Cardano developers as a result of peer-reviewed and academic research, is a more efficient Cardano-specific implementation of Proof-of-Stake. According to Charles Hoskinson, this model is 1.6 million times more energy efficient than Bitcoin. Using a combination of combinatorics, mathematical game theory, and cryptography, Ouroboros supports a sustainable, provably secure, and integrated community node network. Solana is a blockchain project founded by former Qualcomm software engineer Anatoly Yakovenko. The feature that puts Solana in an advantageous position against Cardano and other competitors is the blockchain based on the Proof-of-History model. The Proof-of-History combined with Proof-of-Stake has brought the ability to process transactions at much higher speeds and lower transaction costs compared to the consensus mechanisms of other blockchains. In fact, Solana has achieved a network that is fast enough to compare with the speeds of huge payment firms such as MasterCard.Launched in 2020, Solana hosts thousands of dApps in many different categories, primarily DeFi, on the blockchain. The project, which managed to increase its market cap very quickly in 2021, is notably supported by FTX, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, and by many venture companies.Solana developers have developed an innovative timestamp format to provide reliable and fast synchronization between nodes and validate transactions. Proof-of-History provides a reliable method for nodes to validate transactions on the network. Proof of History is not a stand-alone consensus mechanism; it is a protocol that supports a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. In the Solana vs. Cardano comparison, we should know that both blockchains offer many useful alternatives to real-world problems and Ethereum’s problems. Both blockchains contain very advanced technologies, and their native coins saw major price increases in 2021. In terms of decentralization, Cardano currently appears to have the upper hand, as becoming a validator on the Solana blockchain is much more difficult.Data collected on March 18, 2024Another thing to consider in the SOL vs ADA comparison is that the Solana network has experienced outages more than 7 times since launch. Solana users had to wait for hours to complete their transactions multiple times.Although Cardano is developing projects for the adoption of the use of blockchain in the world, the concrete steps taken in this regard are quite limited. Although the goals of both blockchains are very good, the speed at which they’re reaching their goals leaves a lot to be desired. Cardano vs. Solana is a comparison that should be evaluated under two different categories. If you are interested in DeFi, NFT, and P2E dApps, the Solana ecosystem is the right choice for you. If you are more interested in use cases like storing credentials, supply chain management and the use of blockchain in administration processes, then Cardano is probably more interesting to look at. Data collected on March 18, 2024According to developers, the Solana blockchain could theoretically reach the capability of processing 700,000 transactions per second. Cardano, on the other hand, could process up to 1 million transactions per second after the Hydra upgrade. While the theoretical limits can be interesting to discuss, Solana is currently much faster than Cardano. The Solana TPS (transactions per second) is currently around 65,000, while the Cardano TPS tops out at around 477.On Solana, the average transaction fee is $0.005, and the transaction latency is around 5 seconds, while on Cardano, the average transaction fee is roughly $0.11, and the transaction latency is less than a minute (but can take up to 20 minutes in some cases).Cardano’s work to increase blockchain adoption has made it one of the most used blockchains for solving real-world problems. IOHK’s appetite for developing this blockchain and the perseverance of the community could make Cardano a good investment.Before making a Cardano price prediction, it’s important to consider the factors that are affecting the broader cryptocurrency market. A few conditions need to be met for the crypto market to start a new bull rally. Improvement in macroeconomic conditions will be achieved by decreasing inflation and gradually lowering the interest rate. With the Bitcoin halving approaching, the Cardano price could see a significant increase after the next crypto bull run takes off.It’s worth noting that ADA has been a rather poor performer in the past couple of months. While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and especially Solana showed 100%+ rallies over the past year, ADA has been on a more modest uptrend. Meanwhile, the ADA currency gained about 80% in the past 12 months, which is less than virtually every other major crypto. This has caused ADA to slip in rankings, currently sitting as the 9th largest crypto asset by market cap (down from 5th in 2021).The Solana ecosystem, which is one of the biggest actors in the market, especially in the NFT and DeFi sectors, continues to increase its market share in both sectors. The fact that Solana has always been in the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies since August 2021, when it started to show its potential, has made it a good investment.The Solana price prediction will also be impacted by the same conditions that apply to Cardano and the rest of the crypto market. A new alt season could push the Solana price back to its 2021 ATH. In fact, we’ve recently seen Solana break the important psychological barrier at $200, which was last reached during the 2021 bull run.It’s difficult to say how much higher Solana could go in the future, given that it already sits as the 4th largest market cap crypto. However, with the growing popularity of Solana coins, increasing DeFi volume, and impressive on-chain stats, Solana could still have room to grow in the future.Both Cardano and Solana have an advantage over each other in terms of certain features. Solana is a notable smart contract platform for its unique PoH protocol and its place in the NFT industry, while Cardano stands out for its strong decentralization, long history, and real-world uses.Cardano leverages peer-reviewed academic research and pioneers’ decentralization. Solana is both faster and cheaper, but its effective level of decentralization could certainly be improved upon. When choosing one of the two cryptocurrencies, you can decide according to your experience, needs and belief in the projects.If you want to see more blockchain comparisons, feel free to take a look at our Solana vs. Avalanche comparison.
