Cardano has been one of the most popular cryptocurrency investments of 2021. Its native currency, ADA, is up more than 10-fold year to date. This is, of course, a strong performance and enough to put it at the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency today with a current market cap of US$67 billion.
And while Cardano has had a tonne of popularity from investors, many developers have been warning it’s a network that’s not user friendly. It has tried to adjust this with a series of upgrades. Cardano implemented decentralized finance (DeFi) services on September 12, 2021, including an upgrade to enable smart contracts and the ability to build decentralized applications (DApps)
However, developers have continued to report a tough time trying to build on the network. This has kept the number of developers low for now. This is a crucial issue because, without developers, DApps don’t get built, and users, therefore, aren’t attracted to the network.
With few developers working on Cardano’s network, there are few places to put your ADA to work, besides staking it. So, for now, I’d avoid Cardano. With cryptocurrencies and their incredible growth potential, the opportunity cost of investing in underperforming projects can be massive.
If you’re looking to find high-quality cryptocurrencies to buy, here are two that offer more potential today.
Ether is still a better buy than Cardano Although Ether is already the second most popular cryptocurrency, it continues to offer a tonne of potential for investors, both in the short and long term.
Ether, as many know, is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. As long as Ethereum continues to gain in popularity, Ether will be demanded by users, and therefore the value will continue to increase. This is why it could be a far better investment than Cardano today.
The biggest drawback of Ethereum was its scalability issues. However, that’s already being addressed. Ether is moving to a proof-of-stake model. In addition, Ethereum will also start utilizing sharding to massively increase its transactions per second. All these upgrades are intended to make it a lot cheaper and more energy efficient to use the Etherum network.
Plus, it’s got a tonne of potential and continues to grow. Many analysts are highly bullish on Ether, and I’d have to agree.
And because it’s the second most popular cryptocurrency, and has been for a while, there are several stocks that can help you gain exposure.
CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF is one of the most popular. Not only can you buy it in a registered account and save on the tax, but the fund offers an incredibly low management fee of 0.4%. That’s incredibly cheap, especially for the potential that Ether offers and the many benefits of the fund.
So rather than buying Cardano today, I’d be looking to gain more exposure to Ethereum.
If you’re looking for an up-and-coming network, consider Polygon Because Ethereum still does have drawbacks, and they haven’t been solved yet, and likely won’t be until mid-2022, there are other blockchain networks that continue to grow in popularity. One of those is Polygon.
Because Ethereum has these drawbacks, many projects are exploring Ethereum compatible blockchains as a way to mitigate these limitations. However, by building a compatible blockchain, they can still leverage Ethereum’s thriving ecosystem — something Cardano isn’t doing.
Polygon is a protocol that allows developers a framework for building and connecting Ethereum compatible blockchain networks. This makes it extremely cheap to do transactions on the blockchain.
Right now, Polygon boosts over 7,000,000 transactions per day, and it continues to grow. Users continue to see how beneficial it is. If you want to swap Ether for a token on its network, it would cost you roughly US$145 in gas (depending on what time of the day you do it). With Polygon, it would cost just 1.5 cents.
That’s clearly a massive advantage, which is why Polygon’s network has seen its popularity rise significantly and why it continues to attract more developers.
So, if you’re looking for a high-quality cryptocurrency to buy, I’d forget Cardano for now. Polygon offers a lot more potential today.
The post Forget Cardano: Here Are 2 Cryptocurrencies to Buy Instead appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.
Fool contributor Daniel Da Costa has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
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