Programming languages

Haskell

Cardano is written in Haskell, a functional language that emphasizes 'pure' functions. That is, functions that produce the same result for the same input.

Haskell is particularly well suited to Cardano's high-assurance code, and the need for greater formal verification in the blockchain. Cardano aims to become a global social and financial system, which requires a very high degree of reliability and verification. 

Many other companies use Haskell, both because of its security properties and pure functional nature. Well-known firms like Oracle and Facebook use Haskell for blockchain research and advertising, respectively, while lesser known companies such as Atos IT and Jotron use it for building applications for the aerospace industry.

Plutus

Plutus is Cardano's native smart contract language. Plutus smart contracts are effectively Haskell programs.

Plutus draws from modern language research to provide a safe, full-stack programming environment based on Haskell, the leading purely-functional programming language. By using Plutus, users can be confident in the correct execution of their smart contracts.

Watch the latest Plutus update video. 

Marlowe

Marlowe is a domain-specific language (DSL) for writing and executing financial contracts. 

Marlowe contracts are optimized for financial transactions, development platforms, and ensure a fast track for financial service providers to build expertise in smart contracts and blockchain technology.

Marlowe provides a suite of products for the community that will foster the adoption of Cardano in finance. Marlowe creates a blockchain-specific way to replicate key processes within financial services by making smart contract development easier for developers in this industry.

Marlowe also aims to facilitate new possibilities of financial innovation and aims to become the technology powering a host of smart contract based-financial services.