Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur, mathematician, and philanthropist. He is the founder and CEO of IOHK (Input Output) a blockchain infrastructure research and engineering companies, which launched Cardano in 2017. Prior to founding Cardano, Hoskinson co-founded Ethereum. ^[1][2][3]

He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation's education committee and established the not-for-profit Cryptocurrency Research Group in September 2013. His current projects focus on educating people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization, and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream.^[15]

Education

Hoskinson attended the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Boulder to study Analytic number theory before moving into cryptography via industry exposure.^[14]

Personal Life

Charles enjoys fishing and chess alongside a passion for functional programming, paradoxes, and building mazes. He lives in Boulder Colorado but often travels to more exotic locales.

Career

Hoskinson entered the crypto space in 2013 through Invictus Innovations Inc, a company he founded with developer Dan Larimer to launch the BitShares network. Bitshares is a crypto platform organized as a decentralized autonomous corporation - a term that Hoskinson coined.^[4]

Later in 2013, Hoskinson started the Bitcoin Education Project, an online school where he met Vitalik Buterin. Hoskinson joined the Ethereum team as a founder alongside Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and left in June 2014.^[5] Buterin and the Ethereum team removed Hoskinson in 2014 after a dispute over whether the project should be commercial (Hoskinson's view) or nonprofit (Buterin's view). After his departure, Hoskinson also shed light on his fall out with Buterin saying:

“It became a Lord of the Flies — style situation, where power camps were formed and whoever was most persuasive to Vitalik was the one who won. That’s why there’s some bad blood, that’ why I wasn’t the nicest guy on the exit. My Reddit postings weren’t so happy.^[37]

Following his departure from Ethereum, he took a six-month sabbatical and contemplated returning to mathematics.^[6]

Later, Hoskinson was approached by former Ethereum colleague Jeremy Wood to form a new project called IOHK, an engineering company that builds cryptocurrencies and blockchains for corporations, government entities, and academic institutions.^[7] IOHK's key project is Cardano, a public blockchain and smart contract platform that hosts the ADA cryptocurrency.^[8][9]

In 2017, Hoskinson and IOHK sponsored research labs focusing on blockchain technology at the University of Edinburgh and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.^[10][11] Later, Hoskinson opened a blockchain research project at the University of Wyoming and Carnegie Mellon University.^[12][13]

In 2020, Hoskinson spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that blockchain may eventually cause social change and linked Bitcoin to an early steam engine:

There are about half a dozen third-generation cryptocurrencies that do what bitcoin does and much more, but don’t consume [the same amount of] power. This progress will allow blockchain to spread beyond finance and create real social change.”^[38]

In 2022, he appeared as a witness before the commodity exchanges, energy, and credit sub-committee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture and had a word on "Future of Digital Asset Regulation".

Philanthropy

Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

On September 21st, 2021, Charles Hoskinson announced his $20 million contribution to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for the establishment of the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics. The center is located in CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and is led by Jeremy Avigad, a professor of philosophy and mathematical sciences at the university. The center's primary focus will be on the exploration of proofs, validation of steps and certification of accuracy of mathematical theorems through the use of computers. The center intends to introduce a new approach to mathematics by developing "collaborative digital libraries" of mathematical tools, making the technology widely available and promoting discoveries across various fields such as computer science, physics, and economics. ^[24][25][26]

UWYO-IOHK Advanced Blockchain and Development Laboratory

In 2020, IOHK opened Cardano Research Lab at the University of Wyoming following a $500,000 donation in the ADA cryptocurrency. The blockchain center at the University of Wyoming features a Plutus development facility, providing blockchain developers with an applied laboratory for writing code in Cardano's smart-contract language.^[37] Hoskinson explained in an AMA session:

This is a very applied laboratory, where instead of doing peer theory, we're actually building real-life things and writing real software that will enter production very quickly."

Polymarket Charity Bets

In September 2021, Hoskinson announced that he has won a $50,000 bet from the team of Polymarket, a prediction market platform. The latter bet that Cardano would not release the smart contracts feature before October 1. On September 12, 2021, Alonzo hard fork was launched on Cardano and enabled the smart-contract feature on this Proof-of-Stake blockchain.^[27][28]

“We'll bet you $50,000 on Polymarket that you won't have live smart contracts for Cardano $ADA by Oct 1st. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Charles. Winnings go to charity of choice”

• Polymarket

This bet was followed up by yet another wager on July 16th 2021, just two days after the Polymarket’s bet, by Polygon co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal. Nailwal stated that he will put up $20,000 on the same bet that Cardano will not be able to make the update before October. ^[27][29]

“I am also willing to top it up by $20k in support of @PolymarketHQ  that @cardano is NGMI, YET AGAIN”

Hoskinson won the bet and Polymarket donated the $50,000 to a non-profit organization that helps children battling cancer called The Magic Yarn Project, handpicked by Charles himself. Sandeep Nailwal has postponed the payout but promised to donate the $20,000. ^[30]

Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic

Charles Hoskinson founded the Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic. The clinic is set in Gillette, Wyoming. The clinic provides its patients with a variety of healthcare options, such as primary care, mental health care, women’s health, preventative health screenings, cancer tests, diet and nutritional medicine, and cardiovascular treatment. In addition to conventional medical care, the clinic offers life-extension services for elderly patients, as well as biological food supplements, dietary counseling, physical therapy, and exercise programs. ^[32][31][35] The native token of the Cardano ecosystem, ADA, is accepted by the clinic as payment for its services.^[36]