Ethereum, Cardano founder explains blockchain technology and its future: We've seen 'tremendous' growth

Blockchain removes central party to work in decentralized way instead: Charles Hoskinson

Charles Hoskinson, a founder of the Cardano blockchain platform and a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform, provided insight into the technology and where it’s headed, noting that it removes a central party and allows for people to work in a decentralized way. 

Blockchain is a list of records, also known as blocks, which are connected by asymmetric cryptography. The technology is a shared registry that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network.

The CEO and founder of Input Output Global, a technology company pre-eminent in engineering and research in fintech blockchain structures - which is best known for the Cardano blockchain platform - joined "Mornings with Maria" on Tuesday, speaking with host Maria Bartiromo from the site of the Milken Institute’s 25th annual Global Conference in Los Angeles. 

Charles Hoskinson, a founder of the Cardano blockchain platform and a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform, provides insight into the technology and where it’s headed. (iStock / iStock)

Hoskinson told Bartiromo that he has been in the space since 2011 and that, "back in those days, nobody cared about cryptocurrency."

"We were a very small club, we all kind of knew each other," he continued, noting that "we’ve seen tremendous growth" since.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
BITQ EXCHANGE TRADED CONCEPTS TRUST BITWISE CRYPTO INNOVATORS E 13.69 +0.61 +4.66%
COIN COINBASE GLOBAL INC. 266.99 +10.29 +4.01%

Hoskinson spoke with Bartiromo on Tuesday as bitcoin traded around $38,000, down from its all-time high of over $68,000 reached in November 2021. Ethereum was trading around $2,800 on Tuesday, 23% lower than its all-time high of $4,865.57. Cardano was trading around 1% higher than the day before on Tuesday at around 80 cents, which is about 40% lower than its all-time high of $3.10, according to CoinDesk

Hoskinson, who helped co-found Ethereum, launched Cardano in 2017.  

"We now have 3.5 million users all across the world," he told Bartiromo. 

BITCOIN COMING TO 402(K) PLANS THROUGH FIDELITY DIGITAL ASSET ACCOUNTS

Hoskinson said that blockchain can be most effective "anywhere where you have a consortium of actors who have to work together, who don’t necessarily trust each other, but need to work together for the market to form."

He noted that it could be a voting system, a supply chain system, or a medical records system. 

"Let’s say you get in a skiing accident in Aspen, how does the doctor up there get your medical records if you are unconscious or something?" he explained. "So these are simple problems to state, but in collection, because of globalization or because of lack of trust, they are hard to solve."

"And usually we solve them by having a central institution, some bank, or somebody, and say, "OK, they’re in charge,’ but by being in charge they have enormous influence," Hoskinson continued. 

"We saw this with social media, for example, they control speech in certain cases."

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"So what you can do with blockchain is remove that central party and then basically have a common logic, and they could all work in a decentralized way instead," he added. "And that is what our industry has been slowly doing." 

Hoskinson noted that finance was the first application and that he is now looking at everything from healthcare to communication and telecommunications.

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