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What is a public blockchain?

Olga Hryniuk
blockchain
A public (or permissionless) blockchain is one that anyone can use without seeking permission. For example, to buy and sell ada or bitcoin, transact, or make payments. Such systems can be used for daily financial activities or by companies for commercial purposes.
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What is a private blockchain?

Olga Hryniuk
blockchain
Private blockchains are usually established for a predefined number of users by closed organizations, or specific projects. Such blockchains can solve specific business problems relating to efficiency, security, or speed of transaction processing. Private blockchains are better suited for enterprises that seek to enhance their business processes without shar...
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What is a sidechain?

Morgan
SidechainFAQ
A sidechain is a blockchain that runs independently alongside the main chain and is linked to it. Transactions are transferred to the sidechain for processing and the results are sent back, thus taking the workload off the main chain. This improves speed, lowers execution fees, and increases overall throughput.
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What is Hydra?

Morgan
HydraFAQ
Hydra is a family of protocols that overlay the layer 1 Cardano blockchain to process transactions off the main chain. Hydra uses the main ledger as the secure settlement layer, boosts throughput, minimizes the delay in starting to process transactions, incurs low to no costs, and greatly reduces storage requirements.
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What is scalability?

Morgan
FAQScalability
Scalability is the ability of a system to handle more and more work efficiently. This is a vital property for a blockchain or it will become slower and more expensive to use. Addressing the scaling problems of earlier blockchains was a founding aim of Cardano and is the focus of the Basho stage of development. Read more about how Cardano scales in 2022.
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What is the Catalyst Circle?

Morgan
Catalyst CircleCatalyst+ 1
The Catalyst Circle is the representative body for groups participating in Project Catalyst. The Circle monitors the current state and future plans regarding governance in Catalyst. It detects and discusses concerns, objections, and opportunities arising within the Catalyst ecosystem. The Circle might discuss, for example, the definition of amounts allocated...
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What is Project Catalyst?

Morgan
Project CatalystFunding+ 1
Project Catalyst is a decentralized innovation fund for Cardano projects. Since 2020, 30,000 members have set hundreds of projects underway. Project Catalyst marked the start of Cardano’s Voltaire phase and is one of the world’s largest examples of on-chain governance. See more FAQs about Project Catalyst.
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What is a CIP?

Morgan
CIPCardano Improvement Proposal+ 1
CIP stands for Cardano Improvement Proposal and is a participatory model system that gives decision-making power to the community. A CIP has an expected format: the structure of the proposal is templated to facilitate discussion and review. This enables other community members to jump in and discuss specific proposals, or individual points in a proposal. The...
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What is Plutus?

Morgan
Smart ContractsProgramming+ 2
Plutus is a set of programming tools for writing smart contracts on Cardano. Plutus includes Plutus Core – the software that runs Plutus transactions and contracts – and the Plutus programming language, which is based on Haskell.
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What is DApp certification?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
DApp certification and assurance help ensure that products meet certain quality standards. While voluntary (Cardano is open and decentralized), certification benefits both developers and users because it includes security checks that help with auditing smart contracts. There are three levels of certification, each of which is complementary to the others.
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What are DApps?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
DApp stands for decentralized application. That is a software app that works on blockchain. There are various types of DApps, including DeFi products, NFT markets, wallets, exchanges, games, and more.
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What is decentralized finance (DeFi)?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
Decentralized finance or DeFi is a blockchain-based form of finance that addresses the same needs as traditional finance. You can send and receive payments, pay for products or services, or invest in cryptocurrency projects instead of bonds or stocks. DeFi uses smart contracts to settle deals fairly and does not depend on any intermediary.
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What is an oracle?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
An oracle is a way to communicate with real-world data. Oracles connect with trusted external data sources that enable smart contracts to execute by referencing datasets such as exact timing, the weather, election results, sports statistics, and cryptocurrency prices. Oracles ensure confidence in timely, accurate, and untampered data.
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How do I write a smart contract?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
Smart contracts are usually written by developers using a dedicated language. In Cardano, there is Plutus, and Marlowe for non-programmers. Haskell can also be used. Visit developers.cardano.org to find out more about writing smart contracts.
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What is a smart contract?

Morgan
Smart ContractsFAQ
Smart contracts are automated digital agreements, written in code, that track, verify, and execute the binding parts of a deal between various parties. The contract executes automatically once pre-determined conditions are met.
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What is an account-based model?

Morgan
ProgrammingFAQ
Account-based accounting models use an account (which can be controlled by a private key or a smart contract) to hold a coin balance. In this model, assets are represented as balances within users’ accounts, and the balances are stored as a global state of accounts, kept by each node, and updated with every transaction. In many respects, account-based chain...
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What is a UTXO?

Morgan
ProgrammingFAQ
UTXO stands for unspent transaction output. This model allows keeping track of users’ balances after sending or receiving funds on the blockchain. In the UTXO model, a transaction has inputs and outputs, where the inputs are unspent outputs from previous transactions. As soon as an output is used as input in a transaction, it becomes spent and can never be u...
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What is an accounting model?

Morgan
Programming
Blockchain is an accounting technology, and accounting models are crucial to keep track of funds' movements, asset ownership, and balance accuracy. Two major accounting models exist in the blockchain space: UTXO-based blockchains (Bitcoin or Cardano, for instance), and account-based chains (Ethereum, and others).
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Why is Haskell so important?

Morgan
ProgrammingFAQ
Haskell is vital to Cardano because its language tools allow extremely thorough testing of program logic and then the actual code. Such extensive testing tools are not available in languages such as C++ or Java.
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Which language is used for Cardano?

Morgan
ProgrammingFAQ
Haskell is the programming language that lies at the core of Cardano development. It is a 'functional' programming language, which means that all computations are treated as mathematical functions. The logic of a program is first described as an equation for testing using mathematical tools. Once correct, coding can begin.
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