Will Cardano or Solana Overtake Ethereum First?

Having introduced smart contracts and allowing the very first DApps, Ethereum is having a much more practical impact on the world than any other blockchain. However, Ethereum’s success is its own worse enemy because popularity peaks significantly and its value rises exponentially. Unfortunately, this leaves investors and developers searching for cheaper alternatives, which they find in the shape of Cardana and Solana, both incredible smart contract blockchains. Depending on who you speak to, one of the blockchains will topple Ethereum from second place on the market, but which one?

Current Ethereum State

You can view the price of Ethereum today at okx.com, but let’s talk about where Ethereum is. Recently, Ethereum finally began “The Merge” and eliminated the climate-damaging validation technique, proof-of-work (PoW). Instead, Ethereum uses 99% less energy by adopting the proof-of-stake (PoS) validation method. As well as reducing the carbon footprint, the blockchain has grown in capacity, meaning it can take on additional projects at a lower price.

Although the change is positive in the long run, Ethereum has lost the support of crypto miners, who used Ethereum to harness their income. Therefore, along with the general crypto market decreases, ETH has taken a hit - even though it’s still lightspeed ahead of any other crypto apart from Bitcoin.

Cardano’s Argument

At the time of writing, Cardano has a market cap of $10.7B, a coin value of $0.30, and it sits 7th on the charts. Despite being worth much less than ETH ($1170), Cardano has the potential to overtake Ethereum in the future. Cardano has split its advancement into five stages and is currently in its 3rd stage (Goguen), which aims to allow users of all levels to create smart contracts. Thanks to the phased approach to development, Cardano is setting itself up to increase in value by millions once blockchain tech and crypto become common practice.

Solana’s Argument

Solana has been around since 2020, making it the baby of smart contract blockchains. Since its creation, Solana has bought in a return of 3,700%, which is an inspiring figure. Solana uses PoS, the validation system that Ethereum has only just adopted. Additionally, it uses proof-of-history (PoH), which is an innovative tech designed to remove the process of stamping blocks, which helps to boost transaction times.

As with all things blockchain, there is a risk to using Solana because it’s had five outages in the space of a year, which indicates it still needs time to come into its own. However, the low fees, high security, and incredible speed make Solana one of the most potential blockchains to overtake Ethereum.

The Verdict

There are no guarantees that either of these Ethereum killers will ever take over. However, based on the information outlined above and the current landscape for blockchain, Solana is the most likely to rise up. Despite being the lower-valued blockchain today and having security flaws, Solana has much more potential because of its innovative PoH and lower transaction fees.