Choose Ethereum smart contracts or Cardano Plutus?

Question

I am new to blockchain technology and exploring ways to build my own smart contracts or blockchain. I was initially exploring the PoS based Cardano platform but when I found that Smart Contracts in Cardano are still in develpment phase and yet to be released, I started looking for some other technology. Then I show Ethereum is a good platform to build Smart contracts but instead uses PoW with solidity which is easier to learn and many materials available online to learn(Plutus which is derivative of Haskell- which I found difficult to learn).
Now I am confused whether to use Ethereum or not to build my blockchain which has many scalability issues due to PoW that's why I was initially exploring Cardano. Is it worth it to concentrate my study on Ethereum?
It would be really helpful if someone could guide because I know very little about the field of Blockchain.

Thanks

Answer 1

Both platforms are solid choices. Ethereum is not very scalable right now, Cardano doesn't have smart contracts yet — but both of these problems are going to be fixed in the next few months.

Right now, Ethereum is undergoing a move to Ethereum 2.0, which will:

• move Ethereum to a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism
• use shards to massively improve scalability

Once done, Ethereum 2.0 will be basically just as scalable and efficient as Cardano.

The added advantage of going with Ethereum is its large user and developer base, the plethora of documentation available for it, and a more certain future. Ethereum is the original smart contract platform, it's the most commonly used one, it's the one in which the most people have a stake, and it's unlikely to be unseated anytime soon. As for its competitors, there are multiple cryptocurrencies that are trying to solve the "Blockchain trilemma" (security, scalability, decentralization), but it's yet to be seen which ones, if any, will gain wider usage.

UPDATE [Sep. 12, 2021]: Cardano smart contracts have been released on mainnet!