Hi everyone, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Always warm, always sunny, sometimes Colorado. I'm back again for another video, this time on crypto kayfabe. What the hell is that?
Well, when I was growing up in Hawaii, we had two things on television that weren’t related to Nickelodeon or these other shows. As a kid, I watched I Dream of Jeannie, Lost in Space, Bewitched, and a little bit of T.J. Hooker. I was like the one guy who liked that show outside of William Shatner, although I don’t even know if William Shatner really liked T.J. Hooker. Then there was wrestling and Sumo. In wrestling, we had all the legends from the '80s: Macho Man Randy Savage, The Hulk, Jake The Snake, and Andre the Giant. There were some really compelling and interesting characters, and kayfabe was all about the capacity to stay in character perpetually. Every interview, every action, every activity—you were The Hulk, you were Macho Man. You could be at a restaurant and snap instantly into character the minute someone approached you wanting an autograph or wanting to talk to you. That was the game; it’s what made Vince McMahon so incredibly rich.
So we have crypto kayfabe that you see on Twitter, Telegram, and Reddit. It’s this professional outrage and drama class that exists. Anything you do, anything you say is engineered in a way that someone’s going to come along and try to create outrage or drama. You see it all the time in engagement farming. They do this on purpose to create controversy and contrast so they can get marketing visibility and eyeballs. You know, the drama, the stories—those are what get you to watch. You see it and think, "Oh, what happened there? That train just got derailed! Oh no, there’s an accident over there! Oh, there’s a fight! Who are those people?"
Now, we have this Metaverse X thing and Cardano. What’s really crazy is how it turned into their ecosystem. My issue was with this poll that came out that the foundation, for whatever reason, was syndicating. I’m not sure why it excluded all the entrepreneurs in the Cardano ecosystem—no Mickey Watkins, no Ben Goril—all the Cardano projects were excluded from the poll. When you look at the poll and see who won and how things are done, you think, "Ah, it’s like sponsored content." The intent is to create some momentum for particular people in anticipation of a conference. Does it matter? No. Is it relevant? No. When you call out a poll like that, it’s not an attack on a particular project. No, it’s kayfabe; it’s not real.
Then you notice the outrage class comes in. This is proof that Charles Hoskinson is toxic; this is proof that we have the better leader. What are they doing? They’re rattling the bell; they’re trying to create some drama. They’re trying to create a movement. They’re trying to get people outraged. "Oh yeah, let’s talk about it on Telegram. I’m leaving; I’m selling all my ADA!" Oh no, some guy in an ecosystem on his private Twitter account said something, and that must mean Cardano as a whole endorses it. That must mean I have to be so outraged that I have to divorce myself completely from this ecosystem because somebody said something about a poll being run for a conference in Dubai.
Now, it’s absurd, right? But it’s the point. It’s like Macho Man Randy Savage with the cream. He’s sitting in the hotel lobby, notices the bucket of cream, takes those little packets, and that night when he’s doing the interview, he’s like, "The cream floats to the top!" You’re like, "Wow, yeah, that guy! I love that guy!" It’s fun and exciting; it gets us to watch. But does that for a moment divide anybody? Not really. Are you guys really that thin-skinned? Maybe there’s somebody out there, a special flower, but for most people, it’s fun.
It seems like that Metaverse X community is absolutely willing to engage. If you really take the surface layer off of all the pearl clutching—"He’s such a bad leader, Charles!"—I’m not taking the bait, kids. I learned my lesson with the XRP side. So if you guys want a Twitter space, if you actually want to set something up, I’d be happy to do it. It would be a lot of fun to learn more about the project and what people are doing.
Okay, challenge accepted! It’ll be very nice. The reality is Cardano as an ecosystem is so far beyond these competitive issues. We have Pado technology; we collaborate with ALR on research. We’ve got so many things going on that are cross-chain these days. Ergo with Rosen Bridge, for example. DC Spark has been an incredible bridge builder; they’ve done a lot of great work in the Mina ecosystem. It’s a big tent, and there are many different bridges and things that come in and out. You don’t need to do kayfabe to actually get some attention. Let’s go beyond that; let’s not do the dance and the whole thing. Let’s actually move through.
So if you want a Twitter space, we’ll do a Twitter space. That’s fine for what it’s worth, and it’ll be fun. We’ll see how many people show up—maybe as many people who voted on that poll. I think you’ll bring the whole community, right? We’ll see.
But you know, more broadly though, I think about this a lot because it’s related to governance. It’s related to how we make decisions, the cadence of making decisions, and the level of depth of discourse required for it. We are incredibly close. I just did a lecture at Google just two hours ago, and many of the questions that came up, and I believe it was recorded so they’ll probably post that, were related to governance because that’s a company that has worked on open-source projects for a long time and has created a lot of open-source projects.
Governance requires good communication, governance requires a lot of foresight, and governance requires compromise and consent and the ability to be heard and listened to. That’s super important. Unfortunately, during a bull market, particularly in the cryptocurrency space, it tends to be quite shallow, and it tends to have a lot of ebbs and flows. So there’s a lot of value in having a stoic core that is unmoving.
I hope in the coming months, as SIP 1694 gets vetted by the stake pool operators, if they get to 70% and accept it and initiate the fork, that when we look at that, we actually say, "Okay, do we think we have enough momentum there and insulation there and enough of the core to be able to deal with the ebbs and flows of the space?" I think this is one of the few communities that truly does have that capability, and I think this is truly one of the communities that can inspire and lead the rest of the industry.
The things I’m most interested in when I talk cross-chain are: What services can we sell to you? What services can you sell to us? What standards can we both agree to follow for the good of the ecosystem? How do we increase liquidity? How do we increase interoperability overall? Also, how do we start creating some common standards as layer ones to protect ourselves against some centralized actors, whether they be asset-backed stablecoins or exchanges that are quite predatory on most of the layer ones?
We have common enemies and common problems, and believe me, there’s nobody in layer one land right now that’s in a cold sweat saying, "Gosh, how do I beat chain XYZ?" That’s not where your problems come from anymore; they come from a different set of actors who use the fact that they’re gatekeepers to control the narrative and the scope of the market. So 95% of the problems we face are the same problems that are faced by every other layer one, and we have a lot more in common.
So actually, when we’re physically in a room or a Twitter space, good conversation works really well. I am more than happy to have one. Just go ahead and reach out to Chelsea or JJ, and we’ll get something on the books and scheduled. It’ll be a lot of fun. I’d love to learn more about your ecosystem, and hopefully, you guys can learn a little bit about our ecosystem. Let’s set aside the formalities and the kayfabe and get to the collaboration part. How about that?
Thank you all. I hope you have a wonderful night. Short one today, but a sweet one. Cheers!
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