Who is Charles Hoskinson, Founder of Cardano?

Drawing from three feats in the blockchain space, Charles Hoskinson, an American entrepreneur, is the co-founder of Input Output Global, a blockchain engineering company  Inc. (formerly IOHK); Founder of the Cardano blockchain platform; and former co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform.

Charles Hoskinson was born on May 11th, 1987, in Hawaii. He attended the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before learning about cryptography through industry exposure.

Charles claimed repeatedly to have worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), though DARPA confirmed he had not.

Before joining Vitalik Buterin to build Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson created a crypto platform called BitShares, and an online school called the Bitcoin Education Project. 

Charles Hoskinson’s Net Worth

As of 2023, Charles Hoskinson’s estimated net worth is reported to be close to $500 million to $600 million

He is known for his significant contributions as a co-founder of Ethereum and Cardano. These estimates place him among the affluent figures in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. 

Charles Hoskinson’s Career

Charles Hoskinson

In 2013, Hoskinson quit consulting to begin the Bitcoin Education Project. According to Hoskinson, the limited supply makes Bitcoin like a digital form of gold.

Before becoming the founder of Cardano, Charles was one of the five founders of Vitalik Buterin of the Ethereum blockchain in late 2013. He was the chief executive. 

Vitalik 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).

In late 2014, Hoskinson and former Ethereum colleague Jeremy Wood formed IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong), an engineering and research company, to build cryptocurrencies and blockchains. 

IOHK’s key project was Cardano, a public blockchain and smart contract platform that hosts the ADA cryptocurrency. They started developing the blockchain in 2014 and officially launched in 2017. 

Hoskinson refused venture capital for Cardano, saying it ran counter to the blockchain’s principles. Hoskinson has also noted that venture capital involvement might lead to an outsized project control.

IOHK has sponsored research on blockchain technology at the University of Edinburgh, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Wyoming.

In 2020, Hoskinson spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, saying that blockchain may eventually cause social change. In 2022, he appeared as a witness before the commodity exchanges, energy, and credit subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, advocating for decentralization and balanced regulation.

Charles Hoskinson’s Ranch

As of 2022, Hoskinson purchased a ranch near Wheatland, Wyoming, donated equipment to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office, and bought a restaurant in Wheatland.

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