Cardano vs OP Mainnet

Cardano uses the Ouroboros Proof‑of‑Stake protocol and an Extended‑UTxO ledger that enables deterministic smart contracts in Plutus and Aiken. Its ‘Basho’ scaling era introduced Hydra Head sidechains capable of 1000 TPS per head, and Mithril light‑client proofs for mobile wallets. Over 1 500 stake pools secure the network and participate in on‑chain treasury governance.

OP Mainnet (Optimism) is an optimistic rollup that batches transactions to Ethereum and relies on fraud proofs submitted during a seven‑day challenge window. The Bedrock upgrade in 2023 cut L1 calldata costs by 40 % and introduced multi‑proof modularity. ‘RetroPGF’ rounds redistribute protocol revenue to public‑goods builders, governed by the OP token‑holder Collective.