Charles Hoskinson 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.

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. ^[19][ ^{[20] [21]} [15]](#cite-id-2nxiefnvvbq)

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. ^[10]

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.

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. 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.^[18]

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

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. IOHK's key project is Cardano, a public blockchain and smart contract platform that hosts the ADA cryptocurrency. IOHK operates as a venture studio, identifying and developing projects based on a "decade's thesis" of where technology is headed, with a focus on exponential technologies like AI, blockchain, and synthetic biology. ^[22]

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

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". ^{[3] [4] [4] [5] [23] [6] [7] [8] [9] [1] [2]}

Agribusiness and Technology

Hoskinson owns a bison ranch in Wyoming where he integrates blockchain into agricultural technology (agtech). He utilizes the technology for "farm to fork" provenance, which allows consumers to scan a QR code on a product to view the complete history of the animal or food item. This includes information on how it was raised, what it was fed, and where it was processed. The primary goals of this initiative are to improve sustainability and profitability while creating an immutable, permanent record of ranching practices. This data helps in understanding the long-term environmental consequences of agricultural activities. In this venture, Hoskinson collaborates with the University of Wyoming's blockchain technology lab. ^[22]

Midnight Network

IOHK developed Midnight, a privacy-focused sidechain for Cardano designed for data protection and confidential smart contracts. Hoskinson has referred to Midnight as a "fourth-generation cryptocurrency," following the first three generations which he defines as value transfer (Bitcoin), programmability (Ethereum), and scalability/governance. According to him, this fourth generation is centered on privacy and identity. The network is intended to bridge traditional finance (TradFi) and Web3 by enabling both public and private data on the blockchain, a feature necessary for real-world business applications and compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. ^{[24] [22]}

In May 2025, Hoskinson announced plans for a private stablecoin on Cardano. The goal was to offer a level of privacy comparable to cash while remaining compliant with regulations through a feature called “selective disclosure,” which would allow for checks like anti-money laundering controls without full de-anonymization. ^[32]

In August 2025, it was announced that Sebastien Guillemot had joined the Midnight Foundation as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Hoskinson expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with Guillemot on related projects such as Starstream, Halo3, and Paima. ^[25]

Glacier Airdrop

In August 2025, the Midnight Foundation launched the "Glacier Drop" airdrop to distribute its native NIGHT token. The airdrop targeted users across eight different blockchains, including Cardano, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. ^{[26] [22]}

Following the launch, some users with Ledger hardware wallets experienced technical issues when trying to claim their tokens. Hoskinson clarified that the problem stemmed from Ledger's software, which limited message sizes to 31 bytes, whereas the airdrop's payload was 251 bytes. A workaround was developed that involved signing a null transaction with the claim data included as metadata. The fix was anticipated to be live by the week of August 25, 2025. Despite these initial difficulties, the airdrop proved to be highly popular, with over 120 million NIGHT tokens claimed within the first few hours. ^{[26] [27]}

Views on the Crypto Industry

Cardano's Strategic Direction

In June 2025, Hoskinson identified Bitcoin DeFi as the "largest opportunity" and the most strategic growth path for Cardano. He asserted that Cardano's technology, with innovations like Leios, Hydra, and Midnight, is well-positioned to engage with Bitcoin's substantial liquidity. However, he also highlighted a "leadership void" within the Cardano ecosystem, noting the absence of a "competent foundation and executive authority" to effectively promote its vision and technological progress. ^[28]

Cardano Treasury

Hoskinson has stated that the Cardano Treasury should be allocated to developing public infrastructure that benefits the entire network, rather than covering commercial expenses for individual projects. In August 2025, he confirmed that the treasury would not be used to pay for exchange listing fees for ecosystem tokens such as SNEK or Midnight. As an alternative to direct grants for such purposes, he proposed a model of repayable bonds, allowing projects to borrow ADA from the treasury and repay it once they begin generating revenue. ^[24]

In May 2025, Hoskinson addressed allegations that he had misused a genesis key to seize 619 million ADA during the 2021 Allegra hard fork. He denied the claims, stating that the vast majority of the ADA in question was redeemed by its original buyers over a seven-year period. He clarified that the small remaining portion of forfeited tokens was donated to Intersect, Cardano's decentralized governance body, and that an official audit report was being prepared to provide full transparency on the matter. ^[33]

In July 2025, Hoskinson confirmed he had received the first draft of the audit report. While he requested additional details and context, he stated that the process was on schedule for a mid-August 2025 public release. He pledged to read the entire report aloud on a livestream once it was finalized to ensure transparency. ^{[37] [38]}

Community and Governance Disputes

In July 2025, the Cardano community faced a significant governance challenge when a major delegated representative, known as "Whale," publicly criticized founder Charles Hoskinson and Input Output Global (IOG). The representative, reportedly controlling 6 million ADA in delegated voting power, accused IOG of wasting millions in ADA on "underdelivered promises" and announced an intention to reject all future proposals from the organization. This move was described as a "governance revolt" and came as a vote on the 2025 Cardano Summit proposal was underway. ^[38]

Hoskinson responded by dismissing the accusations as "pettiness on-chain" and denied that scaling development was being neglected. He further escalated the situation by stating he was in contact with a defamation law firm regarding the claims, a move that drew comparisons within the community to the controversial legal strategies employed by Craig Wright. The incident caused a split in the community, with some members siding with the whale's critique of IOG's focus, while others warned against abandoning the core development team. ^[38]

Industry Evolution

In an August 2025 interview, reflecting on the evolution of the cryptocurrency space since his entry in 2013, Hoskinson declared, "We won." He cited the industry's growth from approximately 100,000 users to over 550 million and its increasing acceptance by governments and institutions as evidence. He believes the next phase for cryptocurrency is to use this position to transform global economic, political, and social systems. This includes reintroducing the concept of sound money, restoring faith in institutions through technologies like blockchain-based voting, and realigning incentives in media and social networks. ^[22]

Competition with Tech Giants

At Paris Blockchain Week in April 2025, Hoskinson warned that the crypto industry must achieve a “cooperative balance” to compete with large technology companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft that are poised to enter the Web3 space. He argued that the industry's current “conflictual” nature, where projects often grow at each other's expense, makes it vulnerable. He predicted that as soon as clear regulations for stablecoins are established in the U.S., these tech giants will begin integrating blockchain solutions, and urged crypto projects to create shared infrastructure that these companies could utilize. ^[34]

Community Funding and Development

Hoskinson has also defended his influence on Cardano's development against criticism. In early August 2025, he highlighted the community's approval for Input Output Global (IOG) to receive 96 million ADA (worth approximately $71 million at the time) from the Cardano treasury. This funding was allocated to support key network upgrades, including the scalability solution Hydra, the consensus protocol Ouroboros Leios, and the security enhancement Mithril. He framed this as a victory for decentralized governance, noting it was the first time core protocol development was being funded directly by the community. ^[35]

Cardano's Ecosystem Development

$100 Million DeFi Fund Proposal

In August 2025, Hoskinson proposed allocating $100 million in ADA from the Cardano Foundation's treasury to boost the network's decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The informal plan aimed to increase liquidity and adoption for Cardano-native stablecoins such as USDM, USDA, and IUSD. The proposal also included allocating a portion of the treasury into Bitcoin. Hoskinson suggested that the investment would be managed carefully using strategies like time-weighted average price (TWAP) and over-the-counter (OTC) channels to avoid disrupting the ADA market. ^[36]

Emphasis on Security and Audits

Concurrent with the DeFi funding proposal, the Cardano ecosystem emphasized its commitment to security. FluidTokens, a Cardano-based lending platform, publicly released a comprehensive 106-page audit of its V3 protocol conducted by the blockchain engineering firm Vacuumlabs. Hoskinson praised this move, citing it as a benchmark for transparency and integrity for projects building on Cardano. This focus on security was highlighted in the context of broader industry concerns, such as a recent 51% attack on the Monero network, which Hoskinson used to underscore the importance of Cardano's defensive architecture, including the Minotaur protocol. ^[36]

Impersonation and Giveaway Scams

In June 2025, reports surfaced regarding a "Cardano Event 2025" that promoted a large-scale ADA giveaway. The scheme, which claimed to be an initiative by Charles Hoskinson to accelerate cryptocurrency adoption, advertised that 100,000,000 ADA would be distributed. Participants were instructed to send ADA to a designated "contribution address" with the promise of receiving double their contribution in return, with payouts ranging from 5,000 to 500,000 ADA. This model is a common characteristic of cryptocurrency giveaway scams, where perpetrators impersonate public figures to defraud individuals of their assets. ^[39]

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. ^[11][12][29]

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. 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." ^[18]

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.

“We'll bet you $50,000 on Polymarket that you won't have live smart contracts for [[Cardano] - (https://iq.wiki/wiki/cardano-ada)] - (https://iq.wiki/wiki/cardano-ada) $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. 

“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] [13] [14] [31]}

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. The native token of the Cardano ecosystem, ADA, is accepted by the clinic as payment for its services. ^[15][ ^{[16] [17]} [36]](#cite-id-oonvb9l0r69)

Hoskinson sees a direct connection between his agricultural ventures and his healthcare initiatives. He has noted that many patients at his clinic suffer from lifestyle-related diseases, which he links to food production and quality. He also advocates for using blockchain technology in healthcare for electronic health record (EHR) systems. He believes it can solve issues of interoperability and access control between different care providers, ultimately giving patients ownership of their medical data and creating new economic models for data sharing. ^[22]