Charles Hoskinson

Charles Hoskinson (born 1987 or 1988) 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, and was a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform.

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".

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.

He also claimed repeatedly to have worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), though DARPA confirmed he had not.

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.

He joined the Ethereum team as one of five original founders with Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 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).

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.

IOHK's key project is Cardano, a public blockchain and smart contract platform that hosts the ADA cryptocurrency.

Hoskinson did not pursue venture capital for Cardano, saying that it ran counter to the blockchain's principles.

Hoskinson has also said that venture capital involvement might lead to an outsized control of a project.

IOHK has sponsored research focused on blockchain technology at the University of Edinburgh, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Wyoming.

Hoskinson contributed $1.5 million to fund a 2023 Galileo Project expedition led by astronomer and "alien hunter" Avi Loeb to explore debris from the meteorite CNEOS 2014-01-08 (also called IM1) that crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2014.

Loeb argued that this object could have been created by alien life, a claim which lacks widespread support from the scientific community.

The expedition reported finding tiny metallic spheres from the object on the ocean floor.

Loeb said analysis of these "spherules" did not match any known alloy, though it was unclear whether they were artificial or natural in origin.

Hoskinson said, "This is a historic discovery, marking the first time that humans hold materials from a large interstellar object" and that he was "pleased with the results".

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.

In 2023, Wyoming Public Radio said Hoskinson, along with his father, Dr. Mark Hoskinson, and brother, Dr. William Hoskinson, had opened a clinic focusing on anti-ageing and regenerative medicine in Gillette, a town in Campbell County, Wyoming.

Mark and William Hoskinson had both formerly worked for Campbell County Health.

The director of the Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic said it had cost $18 million.

Charles Hoskinson said cryptocurrency would be accepted in the future.

Hoskinson was criticised after his private jet was ranked among the top 15 biggest polluters in the US on the Climate Jets website.

Commentators contrasted the "green" reputation of Cardano with his personal travel.

He defended his jet use, saying the plane had been used for charters for the band Metallica and film industry workers.

Forbes estimated Hoskinson's wealth as $500m–$600m in 2018.

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

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, where he advocated for decentralization and balanced regulation.

In September 2021, Hoskinson donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish and run the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics as part of the university's philosophy department.

In late 2022 Hoskinson and his family assisted in creating the Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic in Gilette, Wyoming.