Top Cardano-based projects to look out for in 2022

Even though the price of the Cardano (ADA) token has been in a downward spiral over the last few months, developer activity on Cardano is shooting through the roof. Dozens and dozens of exciting projects are being built on Cardano as you read this. Some of them are incredibly innovative and promising. 

For the uninitiated, Cardano is a 3rd-gen, proof of stake (PoS) blockchain created to resolve the challenges that haunt the proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism such as scalability, interoperability, and environment-friendliness. It’s one of the few smart contract blockchains based on peer-reviewed research and evidence-driven methodologies. Security, decentralization, and sustainability are at the core of Cardano. 

According to data from the market intelligence firm Messari, Cardano is only behind Bitcoin in terms of on-chain transaction volume. Its on-chain activity has been growing steadily over the last few weeks, overtaking Ethereum and Litecoin.

Here are the top five Cardano-based projects worth keeping track of in 2022:

Profila

Profila is a Cardano-based zero-knowledge advertising platform designed from the ground up to be private and surveillance-free. It gives users full control over their personal data. If people choose to share their data with brands through the Profila app, they’ll receive compensation in exchange. 

Profila makes users a player, rather than just a pawn, in the game of digital advertising. Brands receive more accurate feedback and direct insights from each individual, which enables them to provide each customer with a more personalized experience. The project is sponsored by the Swiss government’s innovation agency Innosuisse. 

It has its own Cardano-native token called the Zero Knowledge Token (ZKT), which will likely go up for sale in the coming weeks. Profila aims to put an end to the misuse of user data, all in an attempt to deliver people with personalized advertising and content.

Drunken Dragon Games

The Drunken Dragon Games is an NFT game built on Cardano. It aims to accomplish on Cardano what the immensely popular Axie Infinity game has done on Ethereum blockchain. It is making a fantasy tavern game where players can have collectible adventures and furniture, which they can trade with friends.

The Pixel Tiles are in the form of tradable and collectible tokens (FTs) on Cardano. Players can use the furniture to decorate their Inn and Tavern, while the adventure collectibles could be sent into epic quests. Drunken Dragon Games has already sold out its first series of Pixel Tiles.

AdaSwap

AdaSwap is a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Cardano network that facilitates swapping, bridging and trading between Cardano-based tokens and stablecoins within seconds. Before AdaSwap, the Cardano-native projects had no option but to rely on centralized exchanges for trading of their tokens. 

The AdaSwap platform aims to have four distinct use cases in the coming months. Chief among them is an automated market maker (AMM) to provide decentralized and non-custodial market-making for liquidity providers. It will be based on the AdaSwap Free Finance Model, which promises to generate large returns for the platform’s native ASW token holders.

AdaSwap is the first DEX on Cardano to launch a multi-chain token. It will also launch an NFT marketplace, a token launchpad, and a Stake & Forget functionality in the near future. The NFT marketplace will offer exclusive and high end-NFTs from renowned brands.

Ardana

Ardana is another popular project on Cardano. It’s an all-in-one decentralized stablecoin ecosystem that focuses on minting, trading and staking activities. Its upcoming dUSD is a stablecoin verifiably backed by on-chain collateral, enabling borrowers to take leverage against their locked collateral such as ADA and other assets. The stablecoin is pegged to the US dollar.

It aims to be the MakerDAO of the Cardano ecosystem. The platform will allow users to mint stablecoins of a wide range of currencies and swap between them on DanaSwap. You can deposit your ADA and other supported assets in the DanaSwap pool to earn low-risk passive income. 

Its DEX will also support highly capital efficient swapping between different fiat-backed stablecoins. 

ADALend

ADALend is building a highly scalable and decentralized lending protocol on Cardano blockchain. As a DAO, it will allow users to engage in DeFi activities in a self-governed environment. It provides DeFi dApps with a flexible and secure layer-2 scaling solution to help them gain more users and incentivize their communities.

The ADALend protocol will offer a variety of lending pools, each with their own tokens. Users can deposit their tokens into the relevant pools to earn interest. Borrowers can access leverage by putting another asset as collateral. It has earned the backing of the IOHK Foundation, the company behind Cardano. ADALend will operate as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where users will make key decisions through voting on proposals related to new features and upgrades. 

Closing thoughts

Cardano is one of the blockchain networks dubbed as Ethereum killer. It is highly scalable, environmentally-friendly, and secure. The explosive growth in the on-chain transaction activity suggests that Cardano is eating into Ethereum’s dominant market position as Ethereum continues to struggle with ridiculously high gas fees and slow transaction speeds. Projects like Profila, AdaSwap, and others will help attract more users to Cardano.