In a new video, analyst Linda argues that several of Cardano’s most criticized design choices — formal verification, selective privacy, public token distribution and proof-of-stake — are now being adopted or prioritized by major blockchain networks.

Her central point is not that Cardano has already won the market, but that the broader industry is increasingly moving toward principles it once dismissed as too slow or too academic.

The argument matters because security failures, privacy demands and token-unlock pressure remain active concerns across the sector, and the features Linda highlights are the kinds of tradeoffs teams have to weigh when deciding whether to optimize for speed, decentralization, compliance or long-term reliability.

Linda, also known as CryptoFly, points to more than $2.5 billion lost to bridge hacks over the past five years as evidence that “ship first and patch later” has carried a steep cost for crypto.

Security and privacy move closer to Cardano’s approach

Formal verification is the first area Linda highlights. Cardano’s research-led development process has often been criticized for slower execution, but she says the approach is meant to eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities before code reaches production.

She cites recent AI-assisted bug discoveries at Zcash and within Ethereum validator software, although the video does not provide technical details or source links for either case.

Linda also says Ethereum’s updated multiyear roadmap makes formal verification a priority and could take as long as four years to complete.

Ethereum’s roadmap, she adds, identifies a UTXO-style model as a leading candidate for a future storage design, an architectural direction associated with Cardano.

The comparison is suggestive rather than conclusive. UTXO systems have long existed in Bitcoin and other networks, and a shared design choice does not mean one chain is simply copying another.

Privacy is the sharper near-term theme. Linda says Cardano’s privacy-focused Midnight chain has been live since March and was in development following its 2022 announcement. She names Google, Vodafone and MoneyGram as institutional validators.

According to the YouTube video, Ethereum has assigned a 50-person privacy team and included “the dawn of privacy” in its 2026 roadmap. Ripple and Sui are also described as planning confidential-token or confidential-transfer features.

The common direction, Linda argues, is selective disclosure rather than fully anonymous transactions: privacy by default, with proofs available when required. In practice, that framing helps explain why privacy has become a recurring discussion point for public blockchains that need to balance user protection, regulatory scrutiny and enterprise adoption.

Token distribution remains the unresolved test

Linda contrasts Cardano’s 2015 public ADA sale, which she characterizes as having no VC allocation or insider presale, with the broader industry’s unlock dynamics.

She says $97 billion in tokens entered circulation through unlock schedules in 2025, including $19 billion allocated to insiders, venture funds and teams.

Solana raised $314 million from venture investors around launch, she notes, while Hyperliquid avoided private fundraising and initially airdropped 31% of its HYPE supply to users.

Linda could not verify a reported statement from a Solana co-founder favoring fair launches combined with staking, and she appropriately treats it as unconfirmed.

Cardano’s early choices have not guaranteed adoption, but the industry’s renewed focus on verified code, regulated privacy and lower insider overhang suggests those choices now sit closer to the center of mainstream blockchain design debates than they once did.