Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson draws backlash as ADA price drops 8%
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has drawn criticism over his comments about completing the blockchain’s original roadmap, while ADA has fallen to around $0.15 amid another cryptocurrency market selloff.
Summary
- Charles Hoskinson defended his claim that Cardano’s original roadmap was complete, explaining his future development priorities.
- Crypto commentator Quinten François criticized Hoskinson over previous promises involving Cardano adoption and partnerships.
- Input Output reported 38,000 student registrations in Ethiopia’s pilot, while its planned nationwide expansion was not realized.
- Cardano’s development schedule still includes Leios and Dijkstra upgrades, with Peras targeted for the second quarter of 2027.
- ADA traded near $0.15 on November 15, losing approximately 8.5% in 24 hours amid wider cryptocurrency market weakness.
In a November 13 livestream titled “Finishing Cardano,” Hoskinson defended his statement that the network’s roadmap was complete and explained what he intended to work on next. His remarks drew criticism from crypto commentator Quinten François, who accused him of failing to deliver on earlier promises.
However, Hoskinson maintained that Input Output would continue developing applications on Cardano, including the privacy-focused Midnight project.
Charles Hoskinson explains what finishing Cardano means
The 32-minute broadcast followed an earlier question-and-answer session in which Hoskinson declared, “My job is done with Cardano.” He explained that he was referring to the engineering work Input Output had undertaken to establish the blockchain, not a decision to abandon its ecosystem.
Hoskinson pointed to Ouroboros, Cardano’s proof-of-stake protocol, its smart contract infrastructure, and on-chain governance as projects his company had delivered. He said his attention was moving from developing the underlying blockchain toward creating applications that people could use on it.
Midnight and Midnight City are among his current priorities. Hoskinson described Midnight as a Cardano-related project and said Input Output would remain involved with other developers as additional teams assumed responsibility for the network’s core infrastructure.
He acknowledged problems with adoption and marketing but disputed the idea that his engineering company was solely responsible for those areas. He assigned greater responsibility for attracting users to the Cardano Foundation and Emurgo, while accepting criticism over delays and some protocol design decisions.
Cardano criticism revives questions about Ethiopia project
On November 14, François mocked the livestream, writing, “He really accomplished a first: FINISHING a software project.” In another post, he questioned Hoskinson’s previous statements about partnerships, adoption, and efforts to introduce blockchain identities to Ethiopian schools.
The commentator pointed to the ambitious plan to provide digital credentials to five million Ethiopian students and contrasted it with the smaller pilot program. He argued that the difference demonstrated how Cardano’s achievements had fallen short of expectations created by its founder.
Input Output’s own November 2024 report provides more detail. The company said its 2021 agreement began with a pilot involving 10,000 students, while a possible second phase envisioned reaching five million students and 750,000 teachers nationwide. By June 2023, 38,000 pupils had registered for the pilot.
The company attributed delays to civil conflict, government changes, and revisions to the project’s requirements. It acknowledged that “our vision to expand the system in Ethiopia was not realized,” while maintaining that the pilot demonstrated the technology and contributed to the development of Hyperledger Identus.
François raised further allegations about unfulfilled initiatives and partnership announcements. His criticism followed Hoskinson’s explanation that Input Output intended to focus more heavily on applications while other development teams assumed additional protocol responsibilities.
Cardano upgrades remain scheduled through 2027
Although Hoskinson considers the original roadmap delivered, work on Cardano’s next network upgrades remains underway. The planned Dijkstra hard fork includes Leios, a scaling system intended to improve transaction throughput, alongside several changes affecting smart contracts and accounts.
Input Output’s October development plan states that Leios will require stake pool operators to register new voting keys following the hard fork. The company plans to introduce additional transaction capacity gradually, depending on network testing and governance approval.
As crypto.news previously reported, the proposed Leios rollout targets an initial threefold to fivefold improvement in capacity. Subsequent changes could raise throughput further, although those steps require additional testing and votes.
The public Dijkstra testnet opened in October, while the published development schedule places a separate Peras upgrade in the second quarter of 2027. Cardano completed its van Rossem upgrade in July, moving the mainnet to protocol version 11 after community governance approval.
ADA price falls over 8% as crypto market declines
Cardano was trading near $0.15 on November 15, down approximately 8.5% over 24 hours, according to crypto.news price data. The token touched $0.1429 during the session, while its seven-day decline stood near 16.6%. Its market capitalization was approximately $5.6 billion.
The decline occurred alongside losses across the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin trading near $65,000. ADA recorded a larger percentage drop than Bitcoin.
Cardano’s September 2021 all-time high stood at almost $3.09, leaving ADA more than 95% below that record at the November 15 price. The price data showed approximately $462 million in trading volume over the preceding 24 hours.
