On the website it's mentioned that:
Cardano is a blockchain platform for changemakers, innovators, and visionaries, with the tools and technologies required to create possibility for the many, as well as the few, and bring about positive global change.
We've estabilished that one of the focal points of Cardano is innovation. It's about durability and there's a chain of (peer-)research, specification and integration. A sustainable future, a global society that is secure, transparent and fair., a world without intermediaries but controlled by the empowered many. It provides the template and toolset to a new age of innovation.
For an outsider though, that's all a lot of buzzwords. I've read some of the research, but what I'm missing is a concise overview of the goals of the project. There must've been a need that wasn't met, a goal that was unattainable because there were no tools or anything remotely like that.
All the use-cases listed mention Atala and seem to go across several disciplines. They seem to share the theme of proving things. Credentials, authenticity, origin tracing and auditability. Is that basically what all the buzzwords boil down to?
By the buzzwords alone, you'd almost think their goal is world peace and power to the people. My guess is such a target is a bit broad, so there must be a smaller one. Right?
