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Core Concepts

How to Use This Section​

These pages cover the technical foundations of Cardano. You don't need to read everything before you start building. Most guides in the Build section link here when a concept becomes relevant.

Start here if you're:

  • New to Cardano
  • Following a Build guide that linked you here for background
  • Curious about why Cardano works the way it does

Jump ahead to Build if you:

  • Prefer learning by doing
  • Want to reference concepts as you encounter them
  1. Addresses: Where value lives on Cardano
  2. EUTXO Model: How value is represented and spent
  3. Transactions: How value moves between addresses
  4. Transaction Fees: What transactions cost and why
  5. Assets & Tokens: Creating and managing native tokens

Why These Concepts Matter​

Cardano uses the Extended UTXO (EUTXO) model rather than account balances. This means transactions, state management, and smart contracts all work differently than on account-based chains like Ethereum.

  • Transactions are deterministic: You know exactly what will happen before you submit
  • Smart contracts validate, they don't act: Scripts approve or reject proposed transactions
  • Tokens are native: No smart contracts needed for basic token operations

Explore the topics below:

Introduction to Cardano: the big picture​

Cardano was designed with input from a large global team including leading experts and professors in the fields of computer programming languages, network design and cryptography.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the legendary whiteboard video from 2017. Some details are a bit outdated, but it is still worth seeing to understand what Cardano is and where Cardano came from.