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Between January 2021 and January 2022, ether (ETH) outshone Bitcoin (BTC), gaining 394% compared to the leader\u2019s 47%. This consolidated its position as the second most dominant coin on the market.<\/p>\n
However, despite the fact that the price of ETH is soaring to new highs and its market cap is increasing exponentially, its fight for market dominance is hampered by competitors and new entrants to the space.<\/p>\n
And ETH has many competitors that are looking to snatch the currency\u2019s market dominance, including Cardano blockchain\u2019s ADA token.<\/p>\n
The Ethereum blockchain was built<\/a> as a smart-contract all-rounder<\/strong> on which decentralized applications \u2013 or dApps \u2013 could be built. The code was written with Solidity and is open-source, meaning anyone can write applications to work on the blockchain.<\/p>\n The many coins created to run this way include Uniswap, which went on to create DeFi (decentralized finance), Chainlink, and AAVE. Among the most popular Ethereum dApps today are NFT exchanges such as LooksRare and OpenSea, along with MetaMask, the wallet people use to store their Ethereum-based tokens and connect with NFT exchanges.<\/p>\n Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson \u2014 along with Gavin Wood, Anthony Di Lorio, Joseph Lubin, and Vitalik Buterin \u2014 was one of the original Ethereum developers. Hoskinson split from the Ethereum team in June 2014 after allegedly<\/a> disagreeing with Vitalik and others about creating a non-profit organization for Ethereum<\/strong>. Hoskinson wanted to create a company while Vitalik and the others went on the create the Ethereum Foundation.<\/p>\n Hoskinson\u2019s original aims for Cardano appeared to be rather vague, not covering much beyond the desire to create a technically better blockchain than Ethereum. And in some ways he succeeded.\u00a0<\/p>\n