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      <h1>Cardano Settlement Layer <span>Documentation</span></h1>

        
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                  <!-- Reviewed at d0868afac50ba6ffcbd95054e65cbf77fa513082 -->

<p>Dear reader, the purpose of this documentation is to provide you with
understanding of the first layer of Cardano Platform stack, the Settlement
Layer. If you have an understanding of what Settlement Layer is, we suggest you
first read <a href="/cardano/differences/">Differences Between the Paper and the
Implementation</a>, and then move on to <a href="/technical/protocols/csl-application-level/">documentation on
protocols and implementation</a>.</p>

<p>This documentation targets IOHK developers, third party software developers,
auditors, and consultants who collaborate on implementing Cardano Settlement
Layer or use Cardano Settlement Layer reference implementation.</p>

<!-- CARDANO_SL_README_BEGIN_1 -->
<h2 id="what-is-cardano-sl">What is Cardano SL?</h2>

<p>Cardano SL (or Cardano Settlement Layer) is a cryptographic currency designed
and developed by <a href="https://iohk.io/team">IOHK</a> in conjunction with the University
of Edinburgh, the University of Athens and the University of Connecticut. Cardano
SL is based on the Haskell implementation of the white paper
<a href="https://iohk.io/research/papers/#9BKRHCSI">“Ouroboros: A Provably Secure Proof of Stake Blockchain Protocol”</a>
by Aggelos Kiayias, Alexander Russell, Bernardo David and Roman Oliynykov.</p>

<p>You can think of Cardano SL as Bitcoin reimagined with a freedom to fix Bitcoin’s
design flaws. Please read <a href="https://cardanodocs.com/introduction/#what-makes-cardano-sl-special">“What Makes Cardano SL Special?”</a>
for more information about similarities and differences between Cardano SL and Bitcoin.
<!-- CARDANO_SL_README_END_1 --></p>

<h2 id="cryptocurrency-basics">Cryptocurrency Basics</h2>

<p>Before giving a definition of a cryptocurrency, let’s talk about why we care
about digital currencies in general and cryptographic currencies in particular.</p>

<h3 id="why-do-we-care">Why Do We Care?</h3>

<h4 id="speed">Speed</h4>

<p>As opposed to conventional (also known as fiat), centrally banked currencies,
such as the Yen or the American Dollar, digital currencies do not require a
banking system to move value. With this restriction lifted, working with digital
currencies is much faster than working with banking, especially on a global
scale. Transferring 10 USD from Osaka to Denver no longer takes days when a
digital currency is used. All transactions are made rapidly regardless of the
distance.</p>

<h4 id="you-own-your-money">You Own Your Money</h4>

<p>All that a commercial bank account owner is given is a promise of being paid a
certain amount of money within a reasonable amount of time after receiving a
payout request. Banking systems also have limits to any volume of value being
moved, rendering an individual unable to withdraw or transfer large amounts
quickly. In case of cryptocurrencies, the person who holds a special kind of
information called <em>a secret key</em> can spend the money at will. No other entity
has a power to manipulate the value that a user owns.</p>

<h4 id="pseudonymity">Pseudonymity</h4>

<p>One can have as many cryptocurrency addresses as they wish, receiving and
spending money from different addresses as per their purpose. A merchant running
an E-Commerce shop can have a set of addresses for receiving money and issuing
refunds, and a separate personal “wallet” for their own needs. A single interface is used
to control all of these wallets, and there is no need to log in to several
payment platforms, which makes the process very time-efficient.</p>

<h4 id="security">Security</h4>

<p>Your money is as secure as the <em>secret key</em> that allows spending it. This means
that storing your secret key on a USB flash drive in a safe is equivalent to
having banknotes in a safe. Absolutely nobody can steal this money even by
carrying out a successful cyberattack.</p>

<h4 id="extensibility">Extensibility</h4>

<p>Using an approach known as <a href="https://www.blockstream.com/sidechains.pdf"><em>side
chains</em></a>, general purpose
cryptocurrencies such as Cardano SL or Bitcoin can enable domain specific
cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum Classic. This way, any innovation developed
via domain specific cryptocurrency can have participants who hold value in a
general purpose cryptocurrency. Examples of such applications are identity
management, gaming and gambling, and verifiable computations.</p>

<h3 id="what-is-a-cryptocurrency">What is a Cryptocurrency?</h3>

<p>Cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that uses cryptography to
manipulate value. Cryptography provides a way to generate proof of genuine
authenticity of any kind of information. This is called <em>digital signing</em>. In
cryptocurrencies we generate a ledger (a database which provides information on
how much money each address has) by signing and sending transactions to the
network and receiving blocks of confirmed transactions. Cryptocurrencies are
normally decentralized, meaning that many people from all over the globe
participate in ledger generation by running cryptocurrency nodes. Thus, a
consensus about the state of the ledger has to be achieved. Two most significant
approaches for achieving such consensus are discussed in the next section.</p>

<h2 id="what-makes-cardano-sl-special">What Makes Cardano SL Special?</h2>

<!-- v0.1.0.0 -->

<p>While there are similarities between Bitcoin and Cardano SL, there are also many
differences between these two cryptocurrencies. The most significant difference
is that Bitcoin is a proof of work type cryptocurrency, while Cardano SL makes
use of a proof of stake approach to reach consensus. This encourages honesty and
long term participation.</p>

<h3 id="purpose-of-a-consensus-algorithm">Purpose of a Consensus Algorithm</h3>

<p>Consensus algorithms are used to produce new transaction blocks, resulting in an
updated state of the ledger. Whenever someone publishes a block of transactions,
they — or rather, their node that runs the cryptocurrency protocol — have to
attach a proof that they have merited it. Below two types of such proofs are
discussed.</p>

<h3 id="proof-of-work-and-mining">Proof of Work and Mining</h3>

<p>Proof of work is the most common consensus algorithm type for cryptocurrencies.
It originated in Bitcoin, and this is how this cryptocurrency works. To generate
proof of work, a computer has to solve a challenge. The challenge is a
computationally heavy problem which is hard to solve, but the solution is easy
to verify. When a computer on a proof of work based network finds a solution, it
publishes it along with the transactions that the computer has been observing while
cracking the problem. The owner of this computer collects the transaction fees
and a reward for generating a block. The entire process is called <em>mining</em>.
Mining is very energy consuming, and the amount of energy needed is constantly increasing,
which can lead to unsound competition.</p>

<h3 id="proof-of-stake-and-minting">Proof of Stake and Minting</h3>

<p>Proof of stake is a novel approach to block generation. IOHK scientists led by
<a href="https://iohk.io/team/aggelos-kiayias/">Prof. Aggelos Kiayias</a> have designed the
first provably secure proof of stake algorithm called Ouroboros. Ouroboros lies
at the heart of Cardano SL. Research team has published a
<a href="https://iohk.io/research/papers/a-provably-secure-proof-of-stake-blockchain-protocol/">white paper</a>
that is a worthy read for anyone with a background in cryptocurrency theory. The
core idea of proof of stake is that instead of wasting electricity on cracking
computationally heavy problems, a node is selected to mint a new block, with a
probability proportional to the amount of coins this node has. If a node
has positive (&gt; 0) <a href="/cardano/proof-of-stake/#stake">stake</a>, it is called <em>a
stakeholder</em>. If a node eventually becomes chosen to mint a block, it is called <em>a
slot leader</em>. You can read more about this process in <a href="/cardano/proof-of-stake/">Proof of Stake in Cardano
SL</a>.</p>

<!-- CARDANO_SL_README_BEGIN_2 -->
<h2 id="beyond-settlement-layer">Beyond Settlement Layer</h2>

<p>Cardano SL is called “Layer” for a reason. It is the first component of
the Cardano Platform. Eventually, it will be expanded with a Control Layer,
serving as a trusted computation framework to evaluate a special
kind of proofs to ensure that a certain computation was carried out
correctly. In gaming and gambling, such systems are used for
verifying honesty of random number generation and game
outcomes. Accompanied with side chains, it will make possible to accomplish
such tasks as provably fair distribution of winnings in games. But the
application of Control Layer lies well beyond gaming and gambling. Identity
management, credit system and more will be a part of Cardano Platform.
We are also aiming to evolve Daedalus, the Cardano SL <a href="https://github.com/input-output-hk/daedalus">wallet application</a>,
into a universal cryptocurrency wallet featuring automated
cryptocurrency trading and cryptocurrency-to-fiat transactions.
<!-- CARDANO_SL_README_END_2 --></p>

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