In our previous blog post Cryptocurrencies need a safeguard to prevent another DAO disaster we discussed the need for high assurance development of cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain protocols. We also sketched one way in which one might go about this, but we did not give much detail. In this follow-up blog post we delve into computer science theory a bit more…

Cardano has been an incredibly challenging and fun project to work on involving many teams throughout the world with different skills and opinions on design, process and quality. Our core technology team consists of Well Typed, Serokell, Runtime Verification, Predictable Network Solutions and ATIX, with IOHK leading them. Then we have external auditors such as Grimm, RPI Sec…

The IELE and K team Mathematical rigor and good design of programming languages and underlying virtual machines are critical for the success of blockchain technologies and applications. Indeed, decades of accumulated evidence show that formal techniques and their early adoption in the design of computing systems can significantly increase the safety, security and dependability…

Why do we need transaction fees?

There are two main reasons why transaction fees are needed for a cryptocurrency like Cardano:

People who run full Cardano nodes spend time, money and effort to run the protocol, for which they should be compensated and rewarded. In contrast to Bitcoin, where new currency is created with each mined block, in Cardano, transaction fees are the only…

IOHK received both Bitcoin and Ada for its contract to work on the Cardano project. IOHK converted most of its Bitcoin at the time of receiving it to fiat in order to ensure project stability. With respect to IOHK's holdings of Ada, IOHK does not expect a need to liquidate any of its Ada to cover immediate costs related to the Cardano project until 2019. However, like most…