Who is Charles Hoskinson, the creator of the Cardano (ADA) blockchain?

Charles Hoskinson: an American childhood with an interest in mathematics

Son of an American father and a Japanese mother, Charles Hoskinson was born on November 16, 1987 in Hawaii. However, he spent his childhood in Colorado Springs, Colorado. From an early age, he showed a keen interest in mathematics and computer science.

After obtaining the equivalent of a bachelor's degree, he continued his studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied number theory. Later, he also joined Denver State University. From his studies, Charles Hoskinson gained a taste for research and a penchant for academic publications.

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Start of career and discovery of cryptocurrencies

While he was still a student, Charles Hoskinson became interested in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologyinitially through his interest in mathematics. Although he claimed in later years to have entered a doctoral program, it appears that in reality he did not obtain any degrees from the universities he attended.

Another founding myth: the creator of Cardano has repeatedly claimed to have joined the United States Defense Research Agency (DARPA)but this was also contradicted by the latter.

What is certain, is that in 2013, Charles Hoskinson created a project centered around Bitcoin, the “Bitcoin Education Project ». Already convinced of the interest of cryptocurrency, the future creator of Cardano began to communicate on the particularities of the blockchain. It is also in this context that he is considering the development of another cryptocurrency, as an alternative to BTC.

👉 Our explanatory sheet on the Cardano blockchain and its ADA crypto

Founding of Ethereum (ETH) and differences with Vitalik Buterin

It was also in 2013 that Charles Hoskinson joined the group of 5 developers who created the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Among his colleagues at the time, we of course found Vitalik Buterin, but also people who founded other large-scale crypto projects, including Gavin Wood (Polkadot) and Joseph Lubin (Consensys).

As one of the principal architects of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson played a central role in defining the vision and technical direction of blockchain…To a certain extent.

Differences indeed emerged very early on between him and Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum developer team sided with Vitalik Buterin and ousted Charles Hoskinson from the project in 2014. The disagreement focused in particular on the nature of Ethereum: Charles Hoskinson would have liked to make it a commercial project, while Vitalik Buterin maintained that it should become a non-commercial organization.

Other sources of discord had also emerged. Charles Hoskinson particularly wanted to have a more rigorous and scientific approach to blockchainunlike some of the co-founders. Eventually, Vitalik Buterin became the unofficial mastermind of Ethereum and Charles Hoskinson left to devote his ideals to a new project.

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Creation of Cardano (ADA), a blockchain competing with Ethereum

After leaving Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson thus focused on the creation of a new blockchain: Cardano (ADA). Developed from 2015 and launched in 2017, Cardano wanted from the start to be a more scalable, more secure and more sustainable alternative to other existing blockchains.

It should be remembered that at this time, several blockchains competing with Ethereum were launched. This was then the first wave of smart contract platforms. Many of them have lost momentum since then, or even completely disappeared from the radar. But this is not the case for Cardano, which has remained in the spotlight to this day.

At its launch, Cardano's objective is to provide a blockchain infrastructure to accommodate decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts as well as financial services. The Cardano blockchain still stands out to this day for its scientific and formal approach, based on principles of engineering and rigorous research.. Gradually, it has moved towards an exploration of decentralized finance (DeFi), like a large part of the crypto ecosystem.

In-depth work was done over 10 years to support the project. As he planned with Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson thus created a company in order to open up to external investments. Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) was launched in 2015 and it has overseen the development of Cardano since then.

The evolution of Cardano remains complex to this day and is divided into several “eras” which bear the names of great scientists admired by Charles Hoskinson. As of 2017, Cardano is developed in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. Several other contracts with major universities have also been signed over the yearsnotably with the Tokyo Institute of Technology or Stanford University.

The result of all this is that Cardano has largely been considered the “scientific” counterpart of Ethereum, with a very long, but accepted, development time frame. Unlike Ethereum, Cardano has indeed had a detailed roadmap from the start, with well-defined steps to take.

At its peak on September 2, 2021the ADA cryptocurrency had reached 4th place among the most capitalized cryptos of the moment, at 77 billion dollars. This of course gave a spotlight to the figure of Charles Hoskinson, who still regularly gives his opinion on developments in the crypto ecosystem.

To date, Cardano remains a major blockchain, even if it has lost some of its splendor in the face of new arrivals. It was also compared to its biggest historical competitor: Solana (SOL), which has become very large. In November 2024, ADA is still located in 10th place among the most capitalized cryptocurrencies with 20.4 billion dollars.

👉 To learn more – Solana (SOL), the blockchain with thousands of transactions per second

Charles Hoskinson today: a central voice in the crypto ecosystem?

In addition to his achievements as a co-founder of Ethereum and Cardano, Charles Hoskinson has engaged in many other initiatives related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain. He is notably a member of the board of directors of the Blockchain Education Networka non-profit organization aimed at promoting education and adoption of blockchain technology. He also helped found the Cryptocurrency Research Group, a cryptocurrency think tank.

In recognition of his contributions, Charles Hoskinson received several honors. In 2014, he was named one of the “30 under 30» by Forbes magazine in the Technology category. In 2018, he was classified among the “100 most influential people in cryptocurrencies » by Richtopia magazine.

It is difficult to estimate Charles Hoskinson's current fortune. In 2018, Forbes magazine reported that his assets were worth between $500 million and $600 million.. But since then, the price of cryptocurrencies has tended to rise and ADA reached an absolute record in 2021. We can therefore estimate that its fortune must be greater to date.

Reviews of Ethereum and Bitcoin

Since his departure from Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson has stood out for his harsh criticism of this blockchain. He called Vitalik Buterin a “dictator” and criticized Ethereum for not being decentralized enough. Conversely, he often communicates his desire for Cardano to become a truly autonomous network, without influence from IOHK.

Other cryptocurrencies are not spared from its criticism either, including Bitcoin. In 2024, a recording re-emerged, where Charles Hoskinson believed that the largest cryptocurrency was useless :

“Bitcoin needs the industry to survive, but the industry no longer needs Bitcoin. […] It's a religion, not an ecosystem. »

Overall, Charles Hoskinson has one belief: Cardano is the most decentralized blockchain, and it will be used by governments in the future. For him, other blockchains are therefore of much less interest.

Towards a position as advisor to American President Donald Trump?

Today, Charles Hoskinson continues to play a leading role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, as co-founder and chief strategy officer of IOHK. It remains a key player in the development and promotion of innovative blockchain technologies, with Cardano as its flagship project, although the latter is gradually decentralizing its operation.

Charles Hoskinson also seems to have political ambitions. Following the election of President Donald Trump in November 2024, the creator of Cardano claimed to have joined a cryptocurrency advisory team dedicated to informing the future government. Its participation will be via Input Output Global (IOG), the global arm of IOHK.

Charles Hoskinson is often asked about developments in the crypto ecosystem

Charles Hoskinson: Ethereum, Cardano, then the future of cryptocurrencies?

With Cardano, Charles Hoskinson succeeded in perpetuating one of the many “Ethereum killers » which emerged from 2017while several competing blockchains fell through in the years that followed. A character respected by part of the ecosystem, mocked by others, his opinions are listened to by many, although he cultivates great discretion about his private life.

The creator of Cardano considers himself first and foremost a researcher and developer and he is convinced that the model adopted by his blockchain outperforms that of others. Is he right? The years to come will tell us.

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Image: Web Summit via Wikimedia Commons

Journalist at Cryptoast since 2017, I am passionate about the issues of decentralization, privacy and regulation. I specialize in traditional economics and finance by analyzing how news in this sector influences the cryptocurrency industry, providing a unique and informed perspective to Cryptoast readers.

Marine Debelloir

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