Cardano is an open-source and decentralized third-generation blockchain created by the co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson. It is built on the Ouroboros protocol which is a peer-to-peer reviewed and verifiably secure blockchain protocol. Ouroboros provides smart contract facilities for Cardano developers to build dApps and scale without compromising security.
Cardano until before the Ethereum Merge, was one of the few blockchain networks that uses Proof-of-Stake consensus, which is built on the mathematical principles of interoperability. Cardano is built on Haskell, a secure functional programming language that encourages building a system using pure functions making developing and designing dApps on it faster and easier.
Basic Attention Token (BAT) is an ERC-20 token that is created to revolutionize the digital advertising industry through better privacy. BAT is used as the native token for the Brave browser which rewards publishers for their content without violating the user’s data and privacy.
The native browser of the BAT ecosystem Brave is built to shield and ledger systems for measuring user attention. It also provides faster loading time & blocking trackers and ads. In addition to this, it creates a dedicated marketplace for digital creators and advertisement opportunities by sharing the advertising revenue with its users in the form of BAT tokens.
Cardano uses their blockchain protocol called Ouroboros which is a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism that uses a leader-based approach to reach consensus.
Basic Attention Token uses the Ethereum protocol and is secured by a proof of work consensus algorithm, which is supported by the network of Ethereum miners.
Cardano is a decentralized and open-source platform that is built to provide a sustainable infrastructure for building and deploying dApps. The Cardano ecosystem comprises the ADA crypto, the Cardano foundation, IOHK, and Emurge.
On the other hand, Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a utility token that is created to reward the users of the Brave browser for their attention and engagement with digital advertising. The BAT ecosystem includes the Brave browser, Brave rewards, Brave Ads, Brave search, and the native BAT token.
Cardano is building to be a highly and rapidly scalable protocol that can process up to 1 million transactions per second (TPS) but currently, it only processes 250 TPS on-chain and 100 TPS off-chain.
BAT is a token based on Ethereum and doesn’t have its blockchain to process transactions. But, BAT has 16 million daily active users on its platform with 1.5 million daily active creators.
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Cardano has a market cap of $13.2 billion and its crypto ADA has seen significant and steady growth in the past year with an all-time high of $3.
BAT has a market cap of $466 million with a comparatively more volatile price than ADA in the past year.
Cardano’s native token ADA has had a strong start to 2023, where ADA managed to rally nearly 70% at its highs in the middle of February before starting to see some correction in line with the broader crypto market. Apart from that, the rally in the first 6 weeks of the year was so strong that we are currently seeing the formation of a golden crossover of the 50 and 200-day moving averages, despite the crash. If the price of ADA recovers from current levels, we can expect a strong pullback rally thereafter.
In the last two weeks alone, the price of ADA has fallen nearly 17% and is currently trading at about $0.337 as of writing. While there was a correction that was pending for ADA at its highs, the amount of correction that we have observed of late has been a little more than expected.
The Relative Strength Index for the coin has fallen to sub-40 levels, which would bring about some selling pressures in the market. However, the $0.42 price level would serve as a region of strict resistance as it has been able to nearly thrice before and previously, had been a strong area of support. Thus a breakout above $0.42 would be crucial for a continuation of ADA’s price rally for the rest of the year.
Basic Attention Token or BAT has also had a similar price action to that of Cardano’s ADA since the beginning of the year. The value of BAT had more than doubled in the first 6 weeks of 2023. But since then, BAT too has fallen, in line with the broader crypto market scenario, and thus presents a unique opportunity as of writing this analysis. And, similar to ADA, BAT has also witnessed a golden crossover of the 50 and 200-day moving averages which would serve as a strong bullish indicator and support for the token.
BAT is currently trading right above a crucial support trendline (marked in black) and the subsequent rally in the days and weeks to come will depend very much on this support level. If the value of BAT can sustain above $0.26, we can see a continuation rally as the broader market recovers. However, in case of a breakdown below $0.26, a subsequent crash may follow.
To state which is better among Cardano and BAT and where you should invest will be like comparing Apples and Oranges, both are fundamentally different from each other. Cardano’s main utility is to enable other developers to build on their blockchain allowing a faster, more secure, and decentralized finance platform.
While Basic Attention Token focuses on filling the insufficiencies of the digital advertising space and privacy violations through their BAT token and brave browser.
There are multiple ways to invest and hold BAT and ADA tokens, most widely used include purchasing & storing them on a centralized exchange like CoinDCX or in a DeFi wallet like Okto.
Remember, whenever you are investing in a crypto, you should always perform first-hand research instead of depending on anyone else’s opinion. Always remember to Do Your Own Research (DYOR).
The future of the Cardano blockchain and the BAT token is very distinct and different from each other. Both BAT & ADA have their merits, and the potential to grow in the future.
Cardano and Basic Attention Token are two very different projects with very different use cases and goals. Cardano aims to provide a secure and scalable infrastructure for building dAppshile Basic Attention Token is focused on creating a more equitable digital advertising ecosystem.