Cardano

aid: cardano
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/cardano/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Cardano
tags:
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrency
- Proof-of-Stake
- Smart Contracts
- Web3
type: Index
kind: company
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
position: Consumer
description: Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform designed for secure and scalable decentralized applications and
  smart contracts. Developer API access to the Cardano network is provided primarily through Blockfrost, a hosted REST API
  service that exposes over 100 endpoints covering transactions, addresses, assets, blocks, epochs, stake pools, governance,
  scripts, metadata, and mempool data. Authentication uses project-scoped API keys passed as HTTP headers. Blockfrost operates
  on Cardano Mainnet, Preview, and Pre-Production testnets, and also supports IPFS storage and the Milkomeda sidechain. SDKs
  are available for 15+ programming languages.
apis:
- aid: cardano:blockfrost-cardano-api
  name: Blockfrost Cardano API
  tags:
  - Blockchain
  - Cardano
  - Transactions
  - Addresses
  - Assets
  - Blocks
  - Epochs
  - Pools
  - Smart Contracts
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  baseURL: https://cardano-mainnet.blockfrost.io/api/v0
  humanURL: https://blockfrost.dev/start-building/cardano/
  properties:
  - url: https://blockfrost.dev/start-building/cardano/
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://docs.blockfrost.io/
    type: APIReference
  - url: openapi/blockfrost-cardano-api-openapi.yml
    type: OpenAPI
  - url: https://blockfrost.dev/overview/plans-and-billing
    type: Plans
  - url: plans/cardano-plans-pricing.yml
    type: Plans
  - url: rate-limits/cardano-rate-limits.yml
    type: RateLimits
  - url: finops/cardano-finops.yml
    type: FinOps
  description: The Blockfrost Cardano API provides instant, highly optimized REST access to the Cardano blockchain without
    requiring developers to run their own node or manage infrastructure. The API covers over 100 endpoints across accounts,
    addresses, assets, blocks, epochs, governance, ledger state, mempool, metadata, network statistics, pools, scripts, transactions,
    and utilities. All responses are JSON; amounts are in Lovelaces (1 ADA = 1,000,000 Lovelaces); addresses, stake addresses,
    and pool IDs use Bech32 encoding; assets, policies, scripts, and transaction hashes use lowercase hex. Authentication
    requires a project_id header obtained by registering at blockfrost.io. Pagination defaults to 100 results per page; ordering
    defaults to ascending (oldest first) and can be reversed with ?order=desc.
  x-features:
  - project_id header authentication
  - Cardano Mainnet, Preview, and Pre-Production testnet support
  - Bech32 and lowercase-hex encoded identifiers
  - Paginated responses with configurable ordering
  - IPFS and Milkomeda sidechain endpoints
  - 15+ official SDKs across programming languages
  x-use-cases:
  - Query transaction details, UTXOs, and redeemers for on-chain analytics
  - Look up ADA and native-asset balances for any address
  - Monitor stake pool performance, delegators, and reward history
  - Track epoch parameters and protocol changes over time
  - Inspect Plutus and native scripts for smart-contract verification
  - Submit and monitor transactions via the mempool endpoint
- aid: cardano:blockfrost-ipfs-api
  name: Blockfrost IPFS API
  tags:
  - Blockchain
  - Cardano
  - IPFS
  - Storage
  - Decentralized Storage
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  baseURL: https://ipfs.blockfrost.io/api/v0
  humanURL: https://blockfrost.dev/
  properties:
  - url: https://docs.blockfrost.io/
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://blockfrost.dev/overview/plans-and-billing
    type: Plans
  description: Blockfrost also operates as an IPFS provider, enabling developers building on Cardano to pin and retrieve content-addressed
    files via the InterPlanetary File System. The IPFS API base URL is https://ipfs.blockfrost.io/api/v0 and uses the same
    project_id authentication as the Cardano mainnet API. Storage quota varies by subscription plan, ranging from 100 MB on
    the free Starter tier to 50,000 MB on the Developer tier.
  x-use-cases:
  - Pin NFT metadata and media files referenced in Cardano native asset policies
  - Store off-chain data linked from on-chain transaction metadata
  - Retrieve IPFS content via Blockfrost gateway for dApp frontends
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com