Cardano’s vision
The ‘Cardano Vision’, is driven by 11 blockchain tenets and outlined through nine thematic focus areas. Now being considered by the community, it proposes an ambitious research roadmap to deliver blockchain’s promise to the world. Each thematic focus area is chosen to tackle critical issues, drive technological advancements, and ultimately enhance the Cardano platform's capabilities, sustainability, and global impact.
Knowledge proofs in the Cardano ecosystem - including light-client infrastructure, state proofs, blockchain bridges, proofs of useful work, and also Hydra Tail - will ensure long-term functionality, competitiveness, and adaptability of the system.
A central principle for the Vision. Becoming the world's operating system means Cardano becoming a core layer of modern IT infrastructure for the secure transfer of value, and to support complex applications in the decentralized finance ecosystem. These goals can be achieved through the enablement of secure smart contract programmability while building infrastructure that enables more services on a comprehensive, feature-rich, and accessible operating system.
Aims to evolve Cardano's groundbreaking Ouroboros protocol to ‘Ouroboros Omega’, enhancing transaction throughput, speed, and fairness to meet the growing demands of the Cardano ecosystem by exploring improvements to settlement speed, transaction processing, network resilience, resource utilization, congestion control, and horizontal scaling via sharding.
Embedding decentralized identity within Cardano’s core functionalities (such as transactions, smart contracts and governance) provides improved security, usability, and features such as decentralized reputation management. Built with a focus on standards and interoperability, it has the potential to redefine digital identity and enable seamless integration across transactional and smart contract systems.
Cardano's tokenomics research concentrates on three areas: (1) designing long-term macroeconomic token policies and mathematical models to understand the factors impacting token price evolution; (2) developing reward-sharing schemes to incentivize desirable behavior and enhance decentralization, and (3) creating stablecoins with price stabilization mechanisms, high liquidity, and privacy-preserving features.
The world’s operating system
A central principle for the Vision. Becoming the world's operating system means Cardano becoming a core layer of modern IT infrastructure for the secure transfer of value, and to support complex applications in the decentralized finance ecosystem. These goals can be achieved through the enablement of secure smart contract programmability while building infrastructure that enables more services on a comprehensive, feature-rich, and accessible operating system.
Ouroboros Omega
Aims to evolve Cardano's groundbreaking Ouroboros protocol to ‘Ouroboros Omega’, enhancing transaction throughput, speed, and fairness to meet the growing demands of the Cardano ecosystem by exploring improvements to settlement speed, transaction processing, network resilience, resource utilization, congestion control, and horizontal scaling via sharding.
Global Identity
Embedding decentralized identity within Cardano’s core functionalities (such as transactions, smart contracts and governance) provides improved security, usability, and features such as decentralized reputation management. Built with a focus on standards and interoperability, it has the potential to redefine digital identity and enable seamless integration across transactional and smart contract systems.
Tokenomicon
Cardano's tokenomics research concentrates on three areas: (1) designing long-term macroeconomic token policies and mathematical models to understand the factors impacting token price evolution; (2) developing reward-sharing schemes to incentivize desirable behavior and enhance decentralization, and (3) creating stablecoins with price stabilization mechanisms, high liquidity, and privacy-preserving features.
Have your sayDelegate to a DRep
A framework for the creation of new voting protocols and decentralized governance models on the Cardano ecosystem. These new protocols and models ensure that positive contributions are rewarded and prevent the concentration of power at a single point of failure.
Hydra enhances Cardano’s scalability by enabling faster transaction processing with lower fees and reduced latency, making it ideal for high-throughput applications such as gaming and supply chains.
Interoperability between blockchains and legacy systems is essential. Cardano’s strong security foundation positions it as a leader in cross-chain transactions. By supporting scalable and private cross-chain DApps, Cardano can offer a secure, efficient multi-chain environment.
The standardization of a common technical core for all applications relying on zero-knowledge proofs in the Cardano ecosystem - including light-client infrastructure, state proofs, blockchain bridges, proofs of useful work, and also Hydra Tail - will ensure the long-term functionality, competitiveness, and adaptability of the system.
Recent advancements in quantum computing underscore the need for blockchain systems to be resilient against future quantum-based attacks to ensure long-term sustainability. Beyond defense, quantum technology also has the potential to enhance blockchain security and performance, introducing techniques that could transform its capabilities.
Democracy 4.0
A framework for the creation of new voting protocols and decentralized governance models on the Cardano ecosystem. These new protocols and models ensure that positive contributions are rewarded and prevent the concentration of power at a single point of failure.
The internet Hydra-ted
Hydra enhances Cardano’s scalability by enabling faster transaction processing with lower fees and reduced latency, making it ideal for high-throughput applications such as gaming and supply chains.
Interchains
Interoperability between blockchains and legacy systems is essential. Cardano’s strong security foundation positions it as a leader in cross-chain transactions. By supporting scalable and private cross-chain DApps, Cardano can offer a secure, efficient multi-chain environment.
Core zero-knowledge capabilities
The standardization of a common technical core for all applications relying on zero-knowledge proofs in the Cardano ecosystem - including light-client infrastructure, state proofs, blockchain bridges, proofs of useful work, and also Hydra Tail - will ensure the long-term functionality, competitiveness, and adaptability of the system.
The post-quantum landscape
Recent advancements in quantum computing underscore the need for blockchain systems to be resilient against future quantum-based attacks to ensure long-term sustainability. Beyond defense, quantum technology also has the potential to enhance blockchain security and performance, introducing techniques that could transform its capabilities.
