Short answers, pulled from the story.
Cardano is a public decentralized blockchain platform that uses the cryptocurrency ADA to facilitate transactions. Development began in 2015, and when it launched in 2017 it was the largest cryptocurrency running on a proof-of-stake blockchain.
Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood set out their plans for Cardano in 2015, after Hoskinson left Ethereum in 2014 following a dispute with co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Wood and Hoskinson also co-founded IOHK, the business that built the Cardano blockchain.
The Cardano platform is named after the Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano, while its cryptocurrency, ADA, is named after the English mathematician Ada Lovelace. The Ada's sub-unit is called the Lovelace, with one Ada equal to 1,000,000 Lovelaces.
Cardano runs on a proof-of-stake protocol called Ouroboros, developed by Aggelos Kiayias, which uses far less energy than proof-of-work mining. In February 2021, Hoskinson estimated the Cardano network used 6 gigawatt-hours annually, less than 0.01 percent of the 110.53 terawatt-hours the University of Cambridge calculated for Bitcoin.
In 2023, the SEC filed a complaint against the exchange Kraken over unregistered securities and staking returns that included Cardano, and Kraken paid a $30 million fine. In June 2023 the SEC also sued Binance, alleging Cardano was a security, and Robinhood briefly removed Cardano from its platform before re-enabling trading in late November.
IOHK signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Ethiopia in 2018 to explore Cardano's use in the country's coffee supply chain. Cardano has also been used for credential verification in Georgia, product authentication for New Balance sneakers, and an identity system for five million Ethiopian school pupils.