Cardano (ADA) Founder at the Binance Blockchain Week

Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOHK and founder of Cardano:  Recent events have really shown, why what we do as an industry is so valuable. We talk a lot about the token of the week.  We talk a lot about NFTs and Defi and the word salad of things and the words change but it is usually it is the same hustle. And, I think what is the point of what we do? Why do we do what we do?

The blockchain technology at its core is about trust amongst people who don’t trust each other. What we do as an industry is we enable the world to work together a little differently. How does a small nation that gets influenced by large nations some how get equal footing. Somehow get things done right away. That is what we do as an industry.

At the core or our technology, whether you are a Bitcoin fan or Ethereum fan or Cardano fan the matter is this idea of equality. A fairness.  A reciprocity. Each and every person is treated equally. Each and every person has the same access to the system as the most powerful amongst us.  And, it is something that is often forgotten.

As we see the third generation cryptocurrencies become more powerful, more prevalent, more pervasive.  We have to make some uncomfortable and very philosophical decisions about how our technology works.

When you move beyond the comfort of Bitcoin the homogeneity of it Proof of work to other systems, you are going to entertain the idea that not everybody is going to have a copy of the blockchain. You start entertaining the idea that there may be some special nodes, special actors in the system. And then when you do that at what point have to crossed a threshold where you are no longer decentralized. You are not longer a cryptocurrency. You are no longer the arbitrator of trust.

And, each and every person is guaranteed equal access.  Down long a good 8 years in this space, we don’t have a definition for basic things. How many people here can truly define what is decentralization? Is it Bitcoin? Is it Ethereum? Linux decentralized – what does it mean?

You talk about performance.  How many people here can have a great conversation about what does it mean to have high performance? What does it mean to have certain transactions per second? Especially, when you have different accounting models, scripting languages and all these nuances. These are just fundamental things.

In decentralization, not even mentioning the notion of inclusive accountability.  This idea that you can check the work of each other from the very beginning Bitcoin had that built in