Cardano (ADA) Not Done Falling, Says Bitcoin Evangelist Cited in Satoshi’s White Paper

• Bitcoin developer and Satoshi Nakamoto’s acquaintance Adam Back has joined the dozens of Bitcoin fans tearing into Cardano, claiming ADA could dip another 90%.
• The backlash follows Charles Hoskinson’s claim that Bitcoin had lost its way and was more of a religion than an ecosystem, which angered BTC fans.

Charles Hoskinson has never been one to hold back what he thinks and will take to YouTube or social media to share his thoughts, no matter how controversial they might be. This often pits him against other crypto innovators, leaders and communities, and the latest is the Bitcoin fraternity.

As we reported, Hoskinson’s past criticism of Bitcoin has come back to haunt him, with some BTC leaders taunting him for Cardano’s underperformance over the years. First was Tuur Demester who noted that three years since Hoskinson tore into BTC, ADA had dropped from accounting for 10% of the BTC market cap to a mere 1%.

Adam Back piled on, claiming that it could dip another 90%.

It can always fall another 90%

— Adam Back (@adam3us) September 2, 2024

Back is the founder and CEO of Blockstream, a crypto infrastructure company that focuses on making Bitcoin more accessible and transferrable. A renowned cypherpunk, he was one of the first two people to receive an email from Satoshi Nakamoto and has often been thought to be a leading candidate for being Satoshi, although he has often denied it.

Despite being one of the most respected voices in Bitcoin, Back rarely gets involved in online squabbles, but he has always been a dedicated defender of Bitcoin as the purest form of decentralised digital currency.

Cardano’s Hoskinson vs. Bitcoin

It’s not the first time Hoskinson has attacked Bitcoin or drawn the ire of BTC fans. As far back as 2021, he was attacking BTC and Ethereum (which he co-founded), likening the former to a washed high-school football star 30 years after leaving high school who despite having a beer belly thinks he still has the same appeal and ability he once did.

There’s nothing about it that’s particularly desirable. You’ve extremely long settlement times, low programmability, it’s not aware of any other system, there’s no native way of issuing an asset on that system. You can’t do anything that’s interest or unique.

This didn’t sit well, and since then, BTC enthusiasts have been coming at Hoskinson and Cardano. But in a true Hoskinson-esque way, the Cardano founder has not let this deter him. In April this year, he took aim again, stating:

It’s a religion, it’s not an ecosystem. We don’t necessarily need Bitcoin.

Just weeks later, he stated:

The industry doesn’t need Bitcoin anymore to survive.

In June, he claimed that Cardano would surpass Bitcoin, and just two days ago, he claimed that the Chang hard fork “dwarfs Bitcoin.”

One of the deepest lessons I've taken to heart over the past decade is that becoming a public figure means you turn into a human rorschach test where those who don't like you will take any post or comment and assume the worst possible interpretation.

Working on Cardano this…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 2, 2024

Meanwhile, ADA trades at $0.3145, losing 11% in the past week and 47% year-to-date. Despite Hoskinson’s claims that Cardano is superior to Bitcoin, the ADA price has failed to reflect this, and the project has now slipped out of the top ten cryptos, with the likes of Toncoin and TRON overtaking it.