Cardano News: Hoskinson Clarifies His Role After Chang Hard Fork Implementation

Cardano has successfully implemented the Chang hard fork, marking the commencement of the Conway era, a significant step in the blockchain’s journey toward full decentralization. This upgrade that occurred at block 10,764,778 on Sunday incorporated the CIP-1694 governance model, which now allows ADA holders to vote directly on the network’s decisions. 

The Cardano Foundation praised the Chang hard fork as a significant event, underlining its significance for the blockchain, ecosystem, and community. “This upgrade realizes the vision of a fully autonomous and decentralized network,” the Foundation said in a blog post on September 2. 

Today's Chang hard fork marks a major milestone for the Cardano blockchain, ecosystem, and community––fulfilling the promise of a truly self-governing, decentralized network.

Welcome to a new era of decentralized governance: Voltaire. https://t.co/sE0iyRKLg9 pic.twitter.com/dA0JkgYOio

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) September 2, 2024

Community Debates Hoskinson’s Future Role in Cardano Development

However, this upgrade has also created some controversy among the Cardano community regarding the future of Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano. Chris-O, a known community member, proposed keeping Hoskinson and his company, Input Output Global (IOG), to fast-track the development of core Cardano functionalities. This proposal has met with both support and opposition views from the public.

I'm not involved technically? What the hell do people think that I do at IOG? https://t.co/mK052umM5f

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 2, 2024

SynthLuvr, the founder of Mynth Network, has a different view, stating that with Hoskinson leaving, Cardano might be better off. According to SynthLuvr, the development of Cardano may benefit from relinquishing this role and enabling the community to be at the forefront, thereby establishing Cardano as the opposite of Ethereum in terms of having a clear leader. 

Hoskinson responded to the ongoing debate with a tweet, questioning the perception of his role at IOG. “I’m not involved technically? What the hell do people think that I do at IOG?” he tweeted.

The Cardano ecosystem will now operate under three key bodies: the constitutional committee, delegate representatives, and stake pool operators. The first phase of the hard fork introduced the constitutional committee, which governs the transition of governance. The second phase of the new governance structures is expected to be launched within the next 90 days and will build on the achievements of the first phase. 

Hoskinson Describes Cardano as Unstoppable “Governance Virus”

In another post, Hoskinson shared his experience of working with Cardano for the past ten years and the stress of being a public representative of the blockchain industry. He pointed out that the process has been a bumpy ride, but at the same time, there were some major successes. 

“Working on Cardano this past decade has been a whirlwind of emotions, challenges, and tremendous obstacles to overcome,” Hoskinson wrote. He emphasized that Cardano’s evolution has turned it into something “alive” and unstoppable.

According to Hoskinson, it is a “governance virus that is alive, replicative, and autonomic,” stating that there is no way to stop its expansion or turn it off. Cardano has not been without its controversies in the past, with critics referring to it as a ‘dead chain.’ 

In July, a YouTuber, Ben Armstrong, who is popularly known as BitBoy Crypto, labeled ADA as irrelevant to institutional investors. Following the Chang hard fork, ADA was trading at $0.32, showing some resilience despite a slight decline of 2.04% over the past 24 hours.