Could Cardano Become The Ethereum Killer?

Cardano is currently behind Bitcoin and Ethereum as the number 3 cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has a market cap of more than $910 billion while Ethereum has a market cap of around $376 billion. Cardano’s market cap is close to $92 billion. While it’s a far cry from overtaking the crypto king (BTC), the steady and quiet growth of ADA could be a threat to Ethereum’s position. 

Crypto investors are wondering if ADA can become the Ethereum killer and take over as the number 2 cryptocurrency. There are many reasons why this possibility cannot be overlooked despite the huge price and market cap difference of ADA and ETH. 

The ADA Advantage 

Cardano was built on blockchain like Bitcoin and the majority of cryptocurrencies. It was founded by Charles Hoskinson who is a co-founder of Ethereum back in 2013. Crypto professionals describe Ethereum as an environmentally-friendly cryptocurrency. 

Cardano is among the top 6 eco-friendly cryptocurrencies, while Ethereum and Bitcoin are not even on the list. Ethereum alone uses around 20 to 25-terawatt hours per year. Cardano, on the other hand, uses just 6-gigawatt hours per year. 

1,000 gigawatts equals 1 terawatt. In other words, Ethereum uses far more energy than Cardano. It’s only natural that people will want to use a cryptocurrency like Cardano that requires less energy. Despite consuming low energy hours, Cardano processes 257 transactions per second, while Ethereum processes 15 transactions per second. 

This is because Cardano doesn’t use a multitude of nodes to verify transactions. It instead uses a proof of stake system which reduces the number of devices required to verify transactions. This is also the reason behind the low energy consumption. 

According to TradingBeasts’ ADA Predictions, the coin is expected to increase by 20% in the next two months. It’s still very far from the present price of ETH and the price of ETH is also predicted to increase. However, cryptocurrency price predictions are not always accurate as the market is not predictable. ADA may or may not continue its ‘unreal’ gains in the long run. 

Will Cardano Overtake Ethereum?

Cardano recently had a software upgrade and the community is looking at a bigger upgrade - The Alonzo Hard Fork. This upgrade is specifically targeted to pitch Cardano against Ethereum. It involves adding smart contracts to the Cardano framework. 

Notably, smart contracts are the technology that Ethereum operates on and its biggest strength. The Alonzo Hard Fork is expected to happen in mid-September. The fork will certainly happen. The question on the lips of crypto enthusiasts is if it’ll succeed in overtaking Ethereum. 

Looking at the market cap and price, it’s less likely for ADA to overtake or be the ETH killer. The difference between the market cap of ETH and ADA is around $284 billion and that’s a whole lot. Cardano’s market cap is closer to the 100th ranked cryptocurrency than it is to Ethereum. 

Cryptocurrencies are known to have very volatile prices. Reports show that ADA is up more than 1,400% in the past year while ETH is up for 330%. Despite that, the price of ADA is a far cry from the price of ETH. 1 ADA is valued at less than $3 while 1 ETH is valued at more than $3,200. 

The ADA Challenge

The main challenge of ADA overtaking ETH is ETH itself. As ADA is making moves to strengthen its framework and increase its market cap, ETH is also doing the same. ADA plans to integrate smart contracts as mentioned earlier. Ethereum plans to integrate the proof of stake model which ADA uses. 

This is expected in late 2021 or early 2022. Its environment friendliness is one of the boosts of ADA adoption. If ETH integrates the POS model, ADA may no longer have that advantage. ETH, like ADA now, will be able to conduct more transactions per second and use fewer energy hours.

The lack of smart contracts means ADA has fewer use cases than ETH which affects its adoption. This is why the developers are looking to add the smart contracts functionality. It could make top crypto investors and developers turn to ADA. Notably, it’ll allow decentralized finance apps to run on ADA. 

Finally, cryptocurrency prices are driven by the number of users. Popularity plays a major role here. ADA was launched in 2017 while ETH has been around since 2013. ETH is far more popular than ADA. So long as it remains like that, ETH will have more users and more value than ADA.

Bottom Line 

Altcoins like XRP, DOGE, and BNB have unsuccessfully tried to overtake ETH in the past. ETH has been the number 2 cryptocurrency behind the BTC for years. It’s early to dictate the future of ADA and if it’ll overtake ETH. At the moment and following predictions, it’s highly unlikely.