Cardano (ADA), a proof-of-stake (PoS) smart contract platform, has reached a significant reliability milestone. A community activist recently highlighted that Cardano has been running on its mainnet for 2,500 days without any major performance issues. Additionally, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is showing signs of recovery after hitting a nine-month low in early July.

Comparing Cardano to Other Blockchains

Cardano (ADA), one of the oldest PoS networks, has successfully completed its 500th epoch without any network outages. Jaromir Tesar, a blockchain expert and long-time Cardano ambassador, spoke about the achievement.

"Cardano is currently in its 500th epoch. An epoch lasts 5 days. This means that #Cardano has been running for over 2,500 days without any network outages or restarts."

Since one epoch of Cardano is approximately five days, this achievement means 2,500 days of uninterrupted transactions. However, many skeptics have criticized the blockchain for its low network activity and the low price performance of its native cryptocurrency ADA.

In contrast to Cardano’s robustness, several major blockchains have experienced intermittent outages in 2023-2024. For example, Solana (SOL), another PoS blockchain, suffered a five-hour outage in April of this year. Similarly, the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain halted block production for one hour on February 23. Both networks were forced to implement emergency patches to their codebases.

TVL Recovered in July

Meanwhile, Cardano’s total value locked (TVL) has declined in recent months. It peaked at nearly $500 million in mid-March 2024, but currently sits at $222 million, according to DeFiLlama. However, it has managed to recover nearly 15% from its low point four weeks ago.

The Minswap, Indigo, and Liqwid protocols collectively account for 50% of Cardano’s total TVL. Despite these changes, the price of Cardano (ADA) has fallen 50% since mid-March. As of the latest update, ADA is trading at $0.38, down 3.4% in the last 24 hours. Cardano’s impressive reliability score contrasts with its recent TVL and price.