IOHK | WHY WE ARE BUILDING CARDANO | 06/28/2017    Legacy Cryptocurrency Interoperability The Maze of Daedalus 4. Regulation The False Dichotomy Metadata Authentication and Compliance Marketplace DAOs 5. Sustainability 6. Conclusion 1. Introduction Motivation Cardano is a project that began in 2015 as an effort to change the way cryptocurrencies are designed and developed. The overall focus beyond a particular set of innovations is to provide a more balanced and sustainable ecosystem that better accounts for the needs of its users as well as other systems seeking integration. In the spirit of many open source projects, Cardano did not begin with a comprehensive roadmap or even an authoritative white paper. Rather it embraced a collection of design principles, engineering best practices and avenues for exploration. These include the following: ● Separation of accounting and computation into different layers ● Implementation of core components in highly modular functional code ● Small groups of academics and developers competing with peer reviewed research ● Heavy use of interdisciplinary teams including early use of InfoSec experts ● Fast iteration between white papers, implementation and new research required to correct issues discovered during review ● Building in the ability to upgrade post-deployed systems without destroying the network ● Development of a decentralized funding mechanism for future work WHY WE ARE BUILDING CARDANO  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Page 2 of 44