Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have taken the world by storm over the past year. Entrepreneur KJ VanDerwerken had a feeling that would be a case in 2020 when he took a massive risk and became an early investor in ADA, the native token of Cardano.
Cardano was appealing to KJ for numerous reasons, and he believes it’s positioned itself to be one of the major players moving into the future. When talking with KJ at his companies’ headquarters, he was very excited to educate us.
Cardano was founded in 2015 by Ethereum Co-Founder Charles Hoskinson. It’s considered to be a third generation blockchain. KJ stressed the importance of it being founded on peer-reviewed research and developed using evidence-based methods. To date over 128 papers have been published by Cardano, all assisting to solve the blockchain trilemma, being decentralized, scalable and secure. Cardano has well thought out road map and a clear vision. Unlike many of its proof of work competitors, it uses Ouroboros, a proof of stake consensus mechanism which enables the networks decentralization and allows it to sustainably scale without compromising any security. Currently 72% of the supply is staked, making it one of the most decentralized blockchains. There are currently over 2.5 million wallets and the growth of on chain activity has been tremendous in Q4. 2021 also led to major partnerships. Africa, and the undeveloped and unbanked world is a major focus of Cardano. They signed a deal with Ethiopia with will onboard 5 million students and teachers to create a block-chain based universal student credentialing system. The goal is to compete for the whole national ID system. There have also been major in roads across the continent and many future projects. Another milestone was a deal with Dish/Boost Mobile. Cardano landed its first Fortune 250 partnership, which will supply 8 million digital identifies on phones as well as boosting reward programs for users.
All of this, among other achievements allowed for ADA to have gains of 700% in 2021, giving KJ Vanderwerken millionaire status from his early investment. And even though he’s already gained huge wealthy, he still believes it’s only the beginning. “Now is a great time to build your business or project on Cardano” KJ believes. And he has plans to continue to invest and build on the blockchain.
An Alonzo hard fork in September has allowed for smart contracts, opening a massive world of decentralized finance applications. As the chain optimizes and scales in future months, companies will compete, and the chains activity will grow by magnitudes. The opportunity to launch your project or business is ripe for rewards, whether it’s a decentralized exchange, becoming a stake pool operator, or an NFT project in the metaverse. The entrepreneur KJ VanDerwerken has big plans. “The Cardano community is second to none. It’s given me new life to build”.
Feel free to follow KJ along on his crypto journey on his Instagram. He can be found at https://www.instagram.com/kjvanderwerken/