Validators process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

Cardano is a smart contract platform for decentralized applications (a blockchain). Cardano was founded by Charles Hoskinson & Jeremy Wood and launched in 2017.

ADA holders own and govern the protocol. They currently do not take a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue).

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Blockchains (L1)

Cardano

# Cardano Active users (monthly) Methodology

## 1. Overview

Active users (monthly) is measured as the number of unique addresses that make a revenue-generating transaction with the Cardano blockchain. This metric is utilized to quantify the monthly volume of distinct participants interacting with the network and serves as a primary indicator of ecosystem adoption. Transaction participants are identified via the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model by extracting address data from transaction inputs. All measurements are conducted over 30-day rolling windows using UTC boundaries.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: UTXO input data from Cardano transaction records, covering Cardano

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: UTXO input extraction

- **Purpose**: Identify the unique addresses initiating transactions on the network
- **Logic**: Sender addresses are identified by parsing transaction records on the Cardano blockchain. In accordance with the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model, the `address` field is extracted from the inputs array of each transaction. This process allows for the identification of the specific entity responsible for providing the assets required for the transaction. Any entries lacking a valid address are excluded from the extraction.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` (timing), `transaction_hash` (uniqueness), and `user_address` (participant identification)

### Component B: Address deduplication

- **Purpose**: Ensure that each unique participant is counted only once per 30-day window
- **Logic**: Deduplication is applied to the extracted addresses to ensure that each unique user is counted exactly once per 30-day window. This logic is maintained regardless of whether a user submits multiple transactions or provides multiple inputs within a single transaction. Timestamps are truncated to the day level using UTC boundaries to align with the 30-day rolling window.

### Component C: Data unification and aggregation

- **Purpose**: Combine historical and recent data into a single continuous metric
- **Logic**: Historical and recent transaction data are unified to create a comprehensive time series for the Cardano network. The resulting data is categorized under the "Transaction sender" user type to represent the primary participants in network activity. Final monthly counts are generated by aggregating these unique addresses for each 30-day window in the reporting period.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Unique revenue-generating users over a rolling 30-day window.

CardanoADA

Active users (monthly)

Active users (monthly)

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