Countdown to Cardano’s 9th Anniversary: History Behind ADA Naming Emerges

Cardano is counting down to its ninth anniversary, with its genesis block having been launched on September 23, 2017.

With less than 24 hours to Cardano’s ninth anniversary, the Cardano Foundation shares a brief history behind the ADA naming.

“Ever wondered why it’s called ADA?” the Cardano Foundation asked, sharing the history behind one of the blockchain’s most recognizable names. Cardano’s ADA token is named after Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), the mathematician widely credited with writing the first computer program. ADA’s smallest unit is a lovelace: one million per ADA.

The Cardano Foundation says this remains a “fitting name for a blockchain that puts math first,” with the Cardano blockchain built fundamentally on peer-reviewed academic research, formal mathematical verification, and rigorous scientific methodology.

The Cardano blockchain itself is named after Gerolamo Cardano, a Renaissance-era Italian polymath, reflecting an emphasis on mathematical rigour.

In a separate X post, the Cardano Foundation shared a brief history behind the name “Cardano.”

“Ever wondered why it’s called Cardano?” the Cardano Foundation asked on X, saying that “Cardano is named after Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576), the Italian mathematician & polymath who pioneered early cryptography.” It says this is “a fitting tribute for a blockchain built on peer-reviewed research, math, and science.”

Journey so far

Cardano‘s initial roadmap details its development phases in five eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire.

Cardano’s evolution into a community-governed blockchain platform marked the culmination of the platform’s foundational development phases—Byron (foundation), Shelley (decentralization), Goguen (smart contracts), Basho (scaling), and Voltaire (decentralized on-chain governance).

With governance now in place, Cardano’s roadmap will be driven by the community for the community. The next evolution of Cardano’s roadmap now focuses on three defined pillars—scalability, usability and utility, and interoperability and extensibility.

In a fresh development, Cardano x402 integration is now available on npm, allowing users to build apps and AI agents that pay and receive ADA or Cardano native tokens over HTTP, using the official x402 SDK.