What is ADA?

So, what is ADA?

ADA is the native cryptocurrency token that’s built on the Cardano network. It’s called ADA as a dedication to the world renowned Ada Lovelace who was a 19th Century mathematician and is widely regarded as the very first computer programmer. Ever. That’s a pretty cool person to name a crypto coin after!

Universally accessible

The big idea behind ADA is that it is accessible to everyone and absolutely anyone. It is a digital currency that can be used to exchange value directly between any two users situated anywhere in the world securely, and without the need for a third party (like a bank or payment network like VISA).

ADA transactions are totally trust-less and every single one is recorded on the Cardano blockchain which is permanent and transparent. This secure transparency is what makes Cardano trust-less and the fact that its run on almost 3000 community run network nodes makes it independent of any centralised service or authority.

Staking for decentralisation

ADA is designed to provide a decentralised financial network and every that’s holding ADA also holds a stake in the Cardano network. You can choose to move your ada from the exchange into a wallet and from there you can stake your ada.

Staking your ADA means that you’re actively helping to run and maintain the Cardano network and as a bonus you get rewarded with more ADA paid into your wallet every 5 days. Staking ADA can be a good passive income if you’re intending on holding yours for a long time.

Where to buy ADA?

You can buy and sell ADA on a wide range of cryptocurrency exchanges. If you want to buy with your hard earned FIAT (£, $ etc) you could use coinbase or create an account on Binance. You can also trade your ADA for other cryptocurrencies on Binance. But, if you’re anything like us, you believe in the long term vision of Cardano ADA and are planning on holding it for a long time yet!

Where to store your ADA?

If you do decide to get in on ADA and buy some coins its not a good idea to keep your ada on the exchange for an extended amount of time, as advised on the Cardano website. The reason its best to move your ADA off of the exchanges and into a wallet is because with a wallet, you own the private keys to your ADA and are in total control of your own coins.

Moving your ADA to a wallet also gives you access to staking, which is a way to support the Cardano network and earn some passive income via staking rewards. You can find out more about the benefits of staking on our “What is staking and why should I do it?” blog post. 

Stake with Upstream

As always if you found our content useful and are looking for a small, independent, community and sustainably focussed pool to stake with, you should consider Upstream! We’re donating our profits to charities like Grow and MyBNK and are creating educational content on our youtube channel to help spread the work about Cardano and financial literacy.

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