This article has been updated by Gareth Jenkinson with additional context and incorporates an audio excerpt of Magazine’s recent interview with Cardano’s founder.
Charles Hoskinson is arguably the best and worst thing about Cardano. Without him, of course, the chain would not exist — he’s driven its development over the past decade and claims he invested $450 million of his own funds into bootstrapping the network.
But he’s also a magnet for bad publicity with a history of picking pointless fights in the industry. This month, for example, he’s threatening to sue Wyoming for not using Cardano for its stablecoin. He frequently overshadows the network’s many technical achievements in terms of decentralization, governance and its new privacy-focused sidechain, Midnight.
Cointelegraph has also experienced Hoskinson’s characteristic combativeness. During an exclusive interview at Token2049, Hoskinson openly stated that Ethereum operates in a manner he likened to a dictatorship as he reflected on Cardano’s evolution.
After running the story, Hoskinson accused the publication of misquoting him in favor of a tabloid-worthy headline. Our recording (above) of the interview proves otherwise, and we stand by our reporting. Cointelegraph also covered Cardano’s Voltaire era governance upgrade and Chang hard fork at length – which we’ll get into a little bit later.
Nevertheless, Hoskinson is undoubtedly one of the industry’s most influential yet divisive figures. As one of Ethereum’s co-founders, he’s built up a huge following, considerable wealth and can be credited for paving the way for proof-of-stake consensus, which underpins the most successful smart contract blockchains.
With a fortune of around $1.2 billion (according to him), Hoskinson has enough money to do whatever he likes — whether it’s hunting alien artifacts, gene editing glow-in-the-dark plants, or trying to convince world leaders…
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