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Hi, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Always warm, always sunny, sometimes Colorado. Today is December 22nd, 2024. It has been a very long year, and this is one of the last days in the office before I get a few days off. Next year is going to be fun; I'm doing a Darkness Retreat and have some crazy shenanigans down in South America that will be announced at a later date, along with a whole bunch of other things and hopefully some surprises.
I'm making this video because there's a good friend of mine in the ecosystem, his name is Rick McCracken. We talk from time to time, we've had calls, and I've known him for years. I really value his opinion, and when I see certain things that he points out, I think it merits a conversation. So, I'm going to share something here.
Alright, so this is Rick: "I had a burning thought in my skull the past week and just had to type it out to get it out of my system. If Charles, Tam, and Fred can’t build a lasting professional relationship between IOHK and the Cardano Foundation inside of the Cardano ecosystem, why should I expect them to build a lasting professional relationship with organizations outside the ecosystem?" Sorry about that brain dump, complete. No more drama. My gut instinct was telling me this is all heading in the wrong direction, and my confidence in the situation being resolved in a productive manner was plummeting.
You know, Rick, I've talked to you personally. You have access to my Telegram, and we certainly can have a phone call about this. But if you want it to spill over to Twitter and reduce everything that we've been discussing down to petty differences, then okay, I’ll explain it again. Since you want to make it go public, we will. For three years, there have been disagreements and fights because there’s a philosophical and fundamental difference between the Cardano Foundation and Input Output. My belief, as the founder of this ecosystem among others, is that it should be a community-oriented organization with the community in charge. They have publicly stated that they will never be community-led.
My belief is that the money that was given to them was not appropriately spent; it's not in a community organization. I'm never going to change my belief. For you to infer this makes it difficult for us as an ecosystem to partner with external people—really, Rick? Really? That’s the inference here? For three years, we’ve had private conversations. We tried everything in our power to convince them of the wisdom that they need to restructure in a way to be community-oriented. Then they publicly said the board will never be community-elected; the board will never have community members. We're going to just pick our own people.
Your inference of this is that we’re just being unreasonable and can’t get along? It’s $600 million of the community’s money—$600 million of your money, my money, everybody’s money that we’re talking about here. Some fights are worth having, Rick. Some fights are worth having. I respect you; I really do. We could have easily had this conversation. You say it’s drama and you’re tired. Well, this is drama that’s worth having because that’s a war chest for our ecosystem, and it’s under the control of people that are unaccountable to the community.
I’m sorry, they’re not. If they make bad decisions, what do we do? Who do we fire? What recourse do we have as an ecosystem? Nothing. We have no recourse as an ecosystem if they make bad decisions. So why do we label it a community organization when the community has no say? That’s the philosophical issue. For three years, behind the scenes, our people and their people tried to hammer this out. It got to a point where they were going to vote against the budget. It got to a point where they created their own MBOs. It got to a point where they were trying to rally competition instead of, I don’t know, maybe getting Circle to come to our ecosystem, or maybe getting liquidity for the CNTs, or maybe sponsoring people to go to Token 2049 and other events so people can actually know Cardano exists.
No, I guess what we need is infighting and a Charles versus somebody else type of dynamic. Then you infer that this means we can’t partner with external people. Okay, so what are we doing with the Polkadot ecosystem? What are we doing with the Alaran ecosystem? What are we doing with Hashgraph? What are we doing with all of the amazing deals that are coming in 2025? What are we doing with all of the exchange relationships? What are we doing with Midnight and the 95 partnerships it’s already working on? Really? Because we have a philosophical issue at IO with the form and structure of a core entity that we feel should be in a different format.
For three years, we fought, and when that entity decided to participate in governance and have a permanent say in governance with no oversight from that say, apparently that translates to the ecosystem as a whole being compromised, and we just can’t get along, and there’s drama and all these other things. If this is not a fight worth having when we talk about $600 million, then what is a fight worth having? Honestly speaking, what should we fight about? The weather? What should we do that’s more foundational and fundamental than this? Governance is here, and the community is making decisions about who should be a D. The community is making decisions about what our founding documents should be.
You weren’t there; you were certainly invited, but you weren’t there at the Constitutional Convention. You didn’t see what the CF did, their faces, their reactions when the Constitution passed the vote. It was not happiness; it was anger. You didn’t see them rush the stage. You didn’t see them plan out a tweet and push the tweet out about how they have difficulty supporting the Constitution. Only on the back of a big public controversy do they pretend like they were always going to support it. Believe me, there was an enormous amount of work behind the scenes to not do so, and the frustration of all the people involved who just wanted this to work—the people who ran the workshops uncompensated, the people that showed up every single day and worked hard, the people who took the time to go to Bonaire and to Nairobi and put their voice down on the table.
It was a great event, even for the people who voted no on the Constitution. They still were in the moment and filled with jubilation. It’s tiring after three years of fighting and fighting and fighting. You know the full story. Do you think I’m lying? Would you like me to send you all the documents over Telegram? You know Tam; you’ve heard this story from her. You’ve been here through all of this. You are one of the guardians of Cardano; you saw this firsthand, Rick. You really did. Why do you do this? More broadly, why do we do this as an ecosystem? What purpose does it serve?
The CF matter was closed out; all that needed to be said was said. Then you carried it through as a Constitutional Committee member and said, "Oh, well, I guess we can’t make partnerships. People need to get along." Why should we be in abusive relationships? Why should we be in relationships where a person lies to your face every day, treats you nice to your face, and then behind your back, they’re thinking, "How do we kill you?" That’s how we feel, and you know that; that’s our lived experience.
Why don’t you go talk to rank-and-file IO people that have had to work through this lived experience for the past three years? Go talk to Jar, go talk to Tam, go talk to Joel Tner, go talk to Michael Maidoff, go talk to Daniela. Talk to the dozens of them that have been in the trenches every single day dealing with this nonsense, this drama, this politics, this bureaucracy. It has not been a pleasant experience. At some point, to have healthy relationships, you have to throw away the unhealthy ones.
The reality is, for me, it’s a lost cause. Whether they do good or bad, I don’t care anymore; we’ve moved on. The ecosystem, frankly speaking, has moved on. I’d like them to do good; I just hope that they don’t interfere with the ability of the government to turn itself on. It’s not drama saying we’ve moved on and we’ve extricated ourselves from a toxic relationship. I respect you; this is why I’m making this video right now. I really do. I don’t understand why you do these things sometimes; I really don’t. We had every opportunity, but you’ve decided to go public and infer that we can’t make partnerships with people.
We have never had better opportunities as an ecosystem to make partnerships with people because the reality is we have great tech, we have a great ecosystem. We’re one of the few ecosystems that has a real chance to be the DeFi layer of Bitcoin. We’re going to all the great conferences. We’re going to Bitcoin 2025 with open arms, Token 2049, Blockchain Paris. We’ll have a delegation at Consensus 2025. Cardano will be there, loud and proud. Rare Evo is growing dramatically; it’s becoming a multi-chain event. It’s likely going to grow from 2,000 to 4,000 people, and those 4,000 people will be not just Cardano people, but people across the entire ecosystem.
We have a great meme coin ecosystem that’s growing. NEX is doing a great job, Gyps is doing a good job, Nike is doing a good job, obviously Hosk is doing a good job, and there are dozens and hundreds of others. We have a great DeFi ecosystem. I’m really proud of all the people building great applications on Cardano, and every year, month after month, they grow in population, they grow in TVL, they keep releasing new additions, they’re learning how to build on Cardano. We have a great DevX; Akin’s growing quite well, as is Plutus. Plutus TypeScript, all kinds of things, and Plutus V4 will be far better than Plutus V3, which brought zero knowledge to Cardano.
We have a great Layer 2 ecosystem. Look at Midgard’s evolution of growth; look at Gummy Worm’s evolution of growth, and look at the fact that they’re going to enter into the innovation process. They’re going to get hyper-accelerated; good teams are going to be added to augment an already exceptional team in both cases. The same for ZK Fold, talking to all the legacy people, especially the big guys. Just had a meeting with Microsoft Azure because they’re a Confidential Computing Consortium. You know this whole idea of merging this big infrastructure; it’s a great play for Midnight. Just had a meeting with the Real USD people, just had a meeting with the Flare people, going to be talking to Multiverse X people here in just a little bit, going to be talking to the Hedera Hashgraph people here for a little bit.
So tell me, all those people are saying, "Well, because the Cardano Foundation doesn’t get along with IO, because IO has a philosophical problem with the fact that they’re never going to be accountable to the community, we can’t do business in the Cardano ecosystem. We have to discount the community, the technology, and the philosophy, and we need to go somewhere else." Really? That’s the barrier? Can’t get your head around that? We’ve got to grow up, honestly speaking.
2025 has to be a new year, and this pettiness and stupidity—I know why people are doing it; they want to be neutral. They don’t want to take Team Hoskinson or Team Foundation. What the hell are you doing? There is no Team Hoskinson or Team Foundation. I have philosophical disagreements, and we have tried for hard times to work with an organization that does not seem at its core to get along with us. That’s the truth, and you could ask my employees what they feel; that’s the truth.
So what do you do? You say, "You know what? We don’t need to work with that organization. We really don’t." There’s Intersect, there’s Pragma, there’s an on-chain government, there’s an on-chain treasury. We’re so far beyond that. You know, let them go do their thing, and if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, there are good people there or bad people there; it’s completely immaterial to the fact that we have our own trajectory at IO, just one company in the broader ecosystem.
We shouldn’t be self-destructively making statements that, "Well, two entities can’t get along about philosophical things; this means the entire project can’t do anything." Because Democrats and Republicans can’t get along, the United States of America can’t have a peace treaty, can’t have diplomacy, can’t make deals with other nations because Democrats and Republicans can’t get along? Nothing in America can get done? We can’t build infrastructure, we can’t go to space, we can’t solve healthcare? It’d be nice if they get along, but you know what? It’s not a prerequisite for moving forward because the sun gets up tomorrow, and we all have to make a decision what to do.
The hard fork is coming soon; we have to make a decision. What are we going to do with that? Are people going to watch the squabblings of two organizations or the totality of the on-chain governance? Your duty as a Constitutional Committee member, and it’s the duty of the Cardano people who participate in governance, is to put the spotlight on the on-chain governance system. You know what? If guys want to then go ahead and have a resolution of discontent as an info action against IO and CF for our squabbles or the board or whatever, there you go. Show that the on-chain governance is above all of us.
Honestly speaking, 2025 is going to be a great year if we want it and manifest it to be a great year. Everybody in the community, this is a video for you. I believe in you; I really do. I think you’re adults, and I think the time has come to grow up. There are no teams here. You don’t have to partner with me or partner with Fred. I’m sorry; we have to get beyond that. There is Cardano, the ecosystem, there’s the on-chain government. Participate in it; join members-based organizations where you actually have a say and you can do something. Build stuff, and you know what? If you’re building stuff, I’m with you every step of the way.
I’m going to try as hard as I can to find a way for the on-chain treasury to get you funding. I’m going to try as hard as I can to get exchanges to like CNTs. I’m going to try as hard as I can if there’s a partnership I have that’s better in your hands to get that partnership your way because I want you to succeed. Your success is the success of Cardano as a whole; that’s the fact. I don’t really care if you’re from Switzerland and you’re best friends with half the people that work at the CF. I don’t really care if you’re in Argentina and you just left the Avalanche project. I don’t really care if you’re in Vietnam and you used to be a big meme coiner on Solana. I don’t care about the backstory. What I care about is, are you using Cardano?
What I care about is, will the thing that you’re building on Cardano benefit everybody on Cardano? Is it closed source or open source? Does it actually have an open ecosystem? Is it something real that’s trying to solve a real problem, or is it just a shameless cash grab? These are the questions I care about. You know what? If you’re bringing people in, you’re growing the ecosystem, and you’ve got something that’s novel and interesting that differentiates us, you’re part of the solution. My only question is, how do we get you funding? How do we get you grown? How do we get you where you need to go? How do we get you before people that can take you to the next level? Those are the partnerships that matter; really, they are.
No greater example than Endmaker. Patrick has a great relationship with Fred; he has a good relationship with us. He’s been in this office multiple times. That picture of us next to the whiteboard was just right down the hall in Suite 203. Despite the fact he voted no on the Constitution, we’re still friends. He was a delegate because at the end of the day, Endmaker is part of the solution. They’re creating value for the Cardano ecosystem; they’re growing the ecosystem; they’re partnering with people, and they’re building useful and interesting things. We, as an ecosystem, have to acknowledge and recognize that.
That’s another reason why I’m so passionate about the budget, and I will go to the mats against anyone who tries to vote no on this budget in 2025. It’s less about getting funding for core entities because, you know what? We’re okay. Obviously, we should be paid for the work that we do; I’m charging cost. But it’s immaterial whether we are or not. The bigger thing is the builders on Cardano have been starving. The CF said in its disclosure, "We don’t think grants are effective." In other words, really speaking, that giant pile of gold that ought to be community-controlled, we’re not deploying it to people building on Cardano.
Then they come into Catalyst to prove a point that there’s too low participation, and that just by deploying 180 million ADA, they can screw some things up because they’ve always been a little lukewarm on Catalyst in every conversation we’ve ever had. So, the problem there is if you’re not getting it from Catalyst, and you’re not getting it from the budget, and you’re not getting it from grants, who is going to help you get to the next level if the venture capital class isn’t there? Unless it’s coming out of your own pocket and you’re just a genius, and all the other ecosystems are building.
That’s why the budget is so damn important to me. It’s a reward for the people who have been building hard. Their annual costs have to be covered; they have to have some assurances that we, the ecosystem, care. The money is there; it’s sitting on-chain. We’ve saved as an ecosystem; we built that up. We have to get them the funding so that then they can build to the next level, and then we have to invest that as an ecosystem into improving liquidity, improving infrastructure.
I’ll tell you, nothing bothers me more than when I go to a website and I see Bitcoin’s logo
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