Three primary teams are working on Cardano’s development:
1. Cardano Foundation
2. IOHK
3. Emurgo
Cardano’s primary development team, IOHK, is also one of the leading development teams for Ethereum Classic. IOHK is also contracted to build Emurgo, the for-profit/commercial arm of the ecosystem’s development. Emurgo provides educational resources, incubation accelerators, systems development, and advisory services about blockchain technology.
The Cardano Foundation is a Swiss-based organization whose mission is to drive adoption of the platform, shape legislation and commercial standards, grow the community, ensure stakeholder accountability, and forge partnerships. According to the foundation:
“Cardano Foundation is an independent body based in Switzerland with core responsibilities to help oversee and supervise the development of Cardano and its ecosystem. We are committed to protecting and promoting Cardano and advocating on behalf of the users and community of the protocol.”
Of the original 26 billion ADA tokens created, roughly 5.1 billion were allocated to the three teams working on Cardano’s development. The total supply is capped at 45 billion tokens, and the additional tokens leading up to the cap will be issued via the PoS validation process (i.e., block rewards) over the next 24 years.