In September, blockchain Cardano by Input Output Global, made headlines by the activation of smart contract functionality. As such, starting from Q3, 2021, GetBlock can connect your dApps to Cardano! Here’s how we do it.

What is Cardano?

Cardano is a blockchain network based on the top of Proof-of-Stake consensus. It was proposed in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson. Cardano’s mainnet went live in 2017.

In 2020, Cardano launched staking of its native asset ADA. ADA holders became able to delegate their coins and support favourite staking pools. For doing so, token holders receive periodical guaranteed rewards in ADA.

Since Q1, 2021, Cardano network is fully decentralized: no nodes are controlled by Cardano founders and early contributors. In Sept., 2021 with the mainnet activation of Alonzo hardfork, Cardano became a programmable network and started to on-board decentralized applications.

Cardano takes decentralization super-seriously: it prevents large staking pools from obtaining a control over the network. Staking ADA is way more profitable with small-sized pools than with ‘whales’.

At the same time, Cardano leverages UTXO (Bitcoin-like) blockchain model: unlike Ethereum’s account-based model, this solution remains exotic for dApps and DeFis.
Which dApps are already live on Cardano’s smart contracts?

As Cardano’s smart contracts are finally live, the blockchain on-boards all sorts of decentralized applications including decentralized finances (DeFi) protocols.

Amidst DEXes and DeFis, Ardana, Occam.Fi, SundaeSwap, Gluwa and MELD represent the most promising products on Cardano.

Another Cardano’s focus is empowering unbanked societies with reliable payment instruments. Empowa application belongs to this type of dApps.

Kick.io, OccamRazr and CardStarter are top three decentralized tokensale launchpads for Cardano-centric products.

Cardano’s dApps ecosystem is boosted by Project Catalyst, a largest incubator for early-stage products on the Web3.0 scene.

Running Cardano (ADA) node with GetBlock: Let’s check the block height

Among other 40+ blockchains, Cardano node is available via GetBlock dashboard. As such, our clients can integrate Cardano (ADA) nodes in their decentralized applications.

Cardano utilizes Rosetta as its core middleware for API requests.

In the following sample, we’re going to see the block height (the number of last blocks mined to date) with GetBlock instruments.

Here’s how Cardano responds to this request:

Thus, we can see the block height (‘index’), header, block timestamp and index.

As Cardano is the latest blockchain to add smart contract functionality, its dApps ecosystem is in its nascent stage. Your game, casino or DeFi can be a game-changer in its ecosystem. In order to harness Cardano nodes, please, don’t hesitate to contact our representatives in Telegram.