In a livestream broadcast on December 19, 2024, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson delivered new remarks on the conflict with the Cardano Foundation, structural complications, and strategic priorities moving into 2025.
“It’s About Governance”
Hoskinson began by acknowledging the shift from “governance on paper” to “governance reality” throughout 2024, referencing a series of “deep and significant governance conversations” during the December Constitutional Convention. He highlighted the historical trajectory of the Cardano Foundation’s board composition and jurisdictional issues dating back to 2014, as well as disputes that arose in 2021 and earlier.
He described the Foundation’s origins, including the initial founding by Michael Parsons on the Isle of Man and the subsequent relocation to Switzerland. According to Hoskinson, the legal entity known as a “Stiftungsrat” (foundation) had been repurposed from a structure not originally intended for decentralized cryptocurrencies: “The stiff tongue structure, the structure that the Foundation is, was never intended for cryptocurrency foundations.” He noted that attempts were made to transition the Foundation’s jurisdiction to a members-based organization better suited to community oversight and decentralized governance, but these efforts were ultimately thwarted by internal board conflicts and regulatory intervention.
Hoskinson further detailed a period in which the majority of the Foundation’s board advocated relocating and restructuring the entity. He stated that a minority faction opposed these moves, initiating a legal dispute. Following a ruling in favor of the majority, an administrator appointed by the Swiss regulator (Eidgenössische Stiftungsaufsicht, ESA) intervened to force board changes. This intervention, according to Hoskinson, effectively allowed the Swiss government, through its administrator, to determine the new board composition. Although he acknowledged potential semantic debates, Hoskinson Cardano Foundation Under Swiss Government Control, Charges Hoskinson: “To me that sounds like the Swiss government appointed the board.”
In Hoskinson’s view, the current Foundation structure lacks the most critical element of decentralized governance—community accountability. “I do not believe something that calls itself the Cardano Foundation should be structured in a way where its board can never be held accountable by the Cardano community and its board chooses its own successors,” he stated, adding, “You can never recover from that original sin until you correct it.” Hoskinson added, “My complaint is not about people, it’s about governance.”
He described various efforts to create more suitable governance bodies and entities, including the development of Intersect and outreach to other ecosystem contributors. According to Hoskinson, Input Output Global (IOG) encouraged the Foundation to join new organizational structures conducive to community oversight, funding, and inclusive decision-making. However, the Foundation launched its own initiatives, such as Pragma, without providing IOG a corresponding opportunity to participate.
Cardano’s Path For 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, Hoskinson underscored two remaining steps for Cardano’s governance transformation: ratifying a community-approved constitution and establishing an annual on-chain budget. Both steps, he noted, would allow for broader participation and resource allocation to ecosystem developers who have been historically underfunded. “We are in a very competitive industry and we have to have the cognizance that we need to spend as an ecosystem to grow and thrive,” he said, urging the community to consider the importance of distributing treasury funds to core builders, innovators, and infrastructure projects.
He conveyed concern that the Cardano Foundation, if it voted “no” on the forthcoming budget, could hinder long-term ecosystem growth. While he stated that this would not directly affect IOG’s operations or technology initiatives, it could impact developers and community participants in need of stable, sustainable funding: “If they were subject to community oversight… maybe it’s not a good thing to have so much ADA accumulated voting no for absolutely necessary funds for the ecosystem to grow.”
Despite these governance challenges, Hoskinson remained optimistic about Cardano’s trajectory. He reaffirmed IOG’s commitments to adoption, interoperability, and technological advancement independent of on-chain governance outcomes. He highlighted the upcoming Bitcoin integration, enhancements to the Lace wallet, and the anticipated impact of the privacy-focused Midnight sidechain. “Midnight will be the single biggest economic event for the Cardano ecosystem in its history. It’s going to airdrop to more than a 100 million people and build bridges with all the major networks and bring people together,” said Hoskinson.
To further strengthen Cardano’s position, IOG plans to enhance core ecosystem functionalities, improve critical tooling and standards, and secure necessary integrations with custodians, wallets, and other platforms. Hoskinson emphasized that IOG would not seek treasury funding for these moves, instead choosing to invest its own resources: “We’re going to get Bitcoin to work with Cardano and we’ll be there at Bitcoin 2025 with a great demo.”
At press time, ADA traded at $0.79.