Charles Hoskinson

Charles Hoskinson (born November 5, 1987) is an American entrepreneur who is a co-founder of the blockchain engineering company Input Output Global, Inc. (formerly IOHK), and the Cardano blockchain platform,^[2] and was a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform.^[3][4]

Charles Hoskinson
Hoskinson in 2018, Mongolia.
Born	(1987-11-05) November 5, 1987 (age 35)^[1] Hawaiʻi, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Metropolitan State University of Denver (attended) University of Colorado Boulder (attended)
Known for	Founder of Cardano, co-founder of Ethereum
Scientific career
Fields	Digital contracts, digital currencies
Website	iohk.io

Early life and education

Hoskinson attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado Boulder "to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure".^[5][6]

Hoskinson has claimed that he had entered a PhD program but had dropped out. However, Denver did not have a graduate program in mathematics. Colorado Boulder verified that he had attended as a half-time undergraduate math major, but did not earn a degree.^[6] He also claimed repeatedly to have worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), though DARPA confirmed he had not.^[7]

Career

In 2013, Hoskinson quit a consulting job to begin a project called the Bitcoin Education Project. According to Hoskinson, the limited supply makes Bitcoin like a digital form of gold.^[8][9]

 

Cardano logo, a cryptocurrency developed by Hoskinson's company, IOHK.

He joined the Ethereum team as one of five original founders with Vitalik Buterin in late 2013^[3][10] and held the position of chief executive. Buterin and the Ethereum team removed Hoskinson in 2014 after a dispute over whether the project should be commercial (Hoskinson's view) or a nonprofit (Buterin's view).^[3][10]

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.^[8] IOHK's key project is Cardano, a public blockchain and smart contract platform that hosts the ADA cryptocurrency.^[8][11] Hoskinson did not pursue venture capital for Cardano, saying that it ran counter to the blockchain's principles.^[12] Hoskinson has also said that venture capital involvement might lead to an outsized control of a project.^[13]

In 2017, IOHK sponsored research labs focusing on blockchain technology at the University of Edinburgh and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.^[14] This resulted in the Ouroboros blockchain consensus protocol. In 2020, IOHK donated $500,000 for the University of Wyoming to create a blockchain laboratory.^[15] In 2022, IOG increased its investment in academic research with more funding for the Edinburgh blockchain research hub^[16] and the launch of a Blockchain Research Hub at the David Tse Lab in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.^[17] This was funded with $4.5m over three years. One of the aims of the Stanford work was to enable smartphones to handle blockchain transactions while offline.^[18][19] The funding also sponsored the Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy.^[20]

Forbes estimated Hoskinson's wealth as $500m–$600m in 2018.^[21]

In 2020, Hoskinson spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that blockchain may eventually cause social change.^[22] 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.^[23]

Philanthropy

In September 2021, Hoskinson donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University to build the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics.^[24][25]

Personal life

As of 2022, Hoskinson purchased a ranch near Wheatland, Wyoming, donated equipment to the Platte County Sheriff's Office, and purchased a restaurant in Wheatland.^[26]

References

1. Kharif, Olga (November 5, 2020). "Charles Hoskinson Turns 33, Here's What He's Achieved by This Age". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 2, 2021 – via Yahoo! News.
2. Duffy, Jim (June 3, 2020). "Will Cardano shake finance to its foundations? Jim Duffy comment". The Scotsman. from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
3. Russo, Camila (July 18, 2017). "Ethereum Co-Founder Says Crypto Coin Market Is a Time-Bomb". Bloomberg. from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
4. Hackett, Robert (April 8, 2019). "Ethereum Cofounder Says Blockchain Presents 'Governance Crisis'". Fortune. from the original on April 9, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
5. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2018.
6. Shin, Laura (February 22, 2022). "Epilogue". The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze. New York: Public Affairs, Hachette Book Group. ISBN 978-1-5417-6300-5. That fall, on Twitter, when asked about his degree, he claimed, as he had for years, that he'd dropped out of a PhD program. Metropolitan State University of Denver, which doesn't have a graduate math program, said he'd been enrolled part-time as a math major between 2006 and 2008 and again from 2012 to 2014, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, said he was a half-time undergraduate math major for four semesters from spring 2009 to fall 2011. He never earned a degree from either. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency confirmed he had never worked directly for the agency.
7. Shin, chapter 2: "He also hinted to Mihai he'd worked with the renowned Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), doing cryptography, and had told Mathias he'd started college young but had gone crazy trying to solve Goldbach's conjecture." "Charles talked about how he had worked at DARPA on the front lines in Afghanistan and met a female military officer there, and she now texted him."
8. Angel Au-Yeung (February 7, 2018). "A Fight Over Ethereum Led A Cofounder To Even Greater Crypto Wealth". Forbes Magazine. from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2020. IOHK's key project: Cardano, a public blockchain and smart-contract platform which hosts the Ada cryptocurrency.
9. Gustke, Constance (July 3, 2013). "Does digital currency have staying power?". BBC. from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
10. Paumgarten, Nick (October 15, 2018). "The Prophets of Cryptocurrency Survey the Boom and Bust". The New Yorker. from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
11. Sugiura, Eri (July 2, 2018). "Startups push blockchain beyond cryptocurrency". Nikkei Asian Review. from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
12. Livni, Ephrat (December 1, 2021). "Venture Capital Funding for Crypto Companies Is Surging". The New York Times. from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch (help)
13. Livni, Ephrat (December 22, 2021). "Jack Dorsey and venture capitalists clash over the future of cryptocurrency". The New York Times. from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch (help)
14. Williams-Grut, Oscar (February 24, 2017). "The University of Edinburgh is launching a blockchain research lab with one of the cofounders of Ethereum". Business Insider Australia. from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
15. Hamilton, Eve (February 14, 2020). "University of Wyoming Receives $500,000 Cryptocurrency Donation". KGAB AM650. from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
16. "Edinburgh Input Output Research Hub (IORH)". The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
17. "Stanford IOG Research Hub". tselab.stanford.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
18. "Aggelos Kiayias interview: Will blockchain be good for the planet?". VentureBeat. February 6, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
19. Parkin, Darren (November 17, 2022). "Cardano builder Input Output Global invests $4.5m into Edinburgh blockchain research hub". CityAM. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
20. "Sponsors · Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy". Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy.
21. Au-Yeung, Angel (February 7, 2018). "A Fight Over Ethereum Led A Cofounder To Even Greater Crypto Wealth". Forbes. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
22. Szalay, Eva (September 1, 2021). "Seasoned investors pile into the industry behind new currencies". Financial Times. from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
23. ""The Future of Digital Asset Regulation" | Committee Repository | U.S. House of Representatives". docs.house.gov. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
24. "Carnegie Mellon Receives $20 Million to Establish Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics in Dietrich College". Carnegie Mellon University (Press release). September 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
25. Hronec, Jordyn (September 22, 2021). "Blockchain entrepreneur gifts $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish mathematics center". Pittsburgh Business Times. www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
26. "New Wheatland resident comes bearing gifts". PC Record Times. Retrieved July 29, 2022.

External links

• IOHK Page