Cardano Founder Calls for Nuanced Community Outlook in Open Letter Response

A community member has called Hoskinson’s perceived support for Dr. Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, and contingent staking into question.

Charles Hoskinson has called for the Cardano community to have a more nuanced and open-minded outlook in response to an open letter.

The Cardano founder did this in a 30-minute-long YouTube video shared yesterday. The open letter shared on Reddit called Hoskinson’s perceived support of Dr. Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, and contingent staking into question. 

The author asserted that Hoskinson’s affiliation with these persons, perceived as icons of the alt-right, was leaking onto the Cardano brand and alienating leftists. In addition, the letter called out the Cardano founder for his idea of contingent staking, asserting that he was forcing the view on the community. The author expressed that it would have been better for the Input Output Global chief to remain anonymous like Satoshi, noting he and some other developers are considering forking the chain.

It is worth noting that the Cardano founder is no stranger to criticism from within and outside the community.

In response to the claims in the open letter, Hoskinson criticized the author and, in general, modern politics for putting people in boxes of good or absolute evil. He expressed that people are nuanced. Explicitly referring to Dr. Peterson and Musk, the Cardano founder pointed out that these are accomplished individuals with bright ideas despite their perceived flaws. In response to the claim of forcing the idea of contingent staking on the community, he pointed out that he has not yet packaged it as a proposal.

For context, contingent staking will allow stake pool operators to choose who delegates with the pool. It works by requiring the SPO and delegate to sign the staking transaction. In the status quo, to stake with a stake pool, a user just has to send a transaction to the pool without input from the SPO.

Hoskinson introduced this idea earlier this month following the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against Kraken for its staking service. Notably, the idea has attracted flak from some privacy advocates within the community that fear that implementation will require know-your-customer procedures. 

Responding to these critics in a thread, the Cardano founder has debunked claims that the implementation will bring about a KYC regime on Cardano or eliminate private SPOs. However, Hoskinson expressed that governments, universities, and other organizations that need to remain regulatory compliant stand to benefit from the availability of such an option.

As highlighted by Hoskinson in the video released yesterday, it remains an idea and would have no binding effect on the community unless it approves through governance. 

It is worth noting that these debates come as the Cardano network is at the precipice of a new era of governance, the Voltaire era. 

Hoskinson expressed hope that the community can get things right with the Voltaire proposal and member-based organization constitution to create institutions that ensure that “things don’t get passed, unless they’ve been thoroughly discussed in a very fact based objective reality.” According to Hoskinson, failing to do so, the network risked replicating the mistakes of modern politics, which he describes as a “demagogic abomination.”