It’s always been hard to rank different blockchains thanks to the diverse ways in which their speeds and activities are measured. But now, one blockchain is under the microscope due to what some claim is a discrepancy in its transaction volumes.
Messari-ing around with numbers
The controversy began with Messari’s “Chains Activity” chart, showing “estimated volume of on-chain transactions in USD”. At press time, Cardano topped the charts, with a 24-hour trading volume of $25.87 billion, even putting it ahead of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The latter two had readings of $23.70 billion and $3.57 billion, respectively.
You can perhaps understand why many are ecstatic – or confused.
Looking at the data from Santiment – We can see that ADA trading volumes over the past few days have seen a huge increase. Even so, volumes don’t even come close to $1 billion, let alone $25 billion in 24 hours.
Additionally, ADA’s velocity has been dropping for days, highlighting a marked fall in an activity involving the asset. Taking this into consideration as well, the metric does not substantiate Cardano’s top rank on Messari’s “chains activity” chart.
In fact, even a member of the Cardano community was skeptical of this stat.
Furthermore, others have started to discuss whether Messari is reporting exaggerated numbers. User u/scientic on Reddit proposed that these stats might be a result of the way in which Cardano’s transaction data is recorded. The user claimed,
“I think what’s happening is that Messari is including Cardano’s UTxO switch outputs in the total transaction value. This problem will only get worse as Cardano grows, until Messari fixes the problem.
In fact, the Reddit poster claimed that Messari only responded with a “generic response” when he flagged the issue.
Do you feel the f(r)iction?
The spotlight was on Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson following the publication of journalist Laura Shin’s book, ‘The Cryptopians.The book traces the history of Ethereum and its leaders.
When Hoskinson told another user that the book is a “great work of fiction,” Shin asked him to formally clarify whether or not he had really been part of a Ph.D program.
Needless to say, many in the community are unimpressed, with some wondering if all is what it seems with Cardano.
