Charles Hoskinson is a former co-founder of BitShares, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic and is a co-founder of Cardano. Hoskinson is currently the CEO of IOHK, a technology company that leads the development of Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
In this interview he talks about solving real-world problems with blockchain and cryptocurrency, citing examples in Africa, where the interview was held.
Hoskinson refers to Cardano as part of a 3rd generarion of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin was the first generation which established scarcity of a digital value, Ethereum was the 2nd generation but is not scalable.
Cardano is open-sourced and is designed to scale and be like a financial operating system.
The Ada cryptocurrency operates on its own blockchain called the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL). The CSL is an accounting layer and supports ledger transactions. A second layer called the Cardano Computation Layer (CCL) supports smart contracts and decentralised applications.
This multi-layer architecture allows for easier updates via soft forks than Ethereum does; in Ethereum these two layers are intertwined.
Hoskinson offers advice on being an entrepreneur. He suggests focusing on solving a problem and not the money, because the money will not sustain you in the long run, but passion will.
He also states that you can’t be successful alone. You need to have a cohesive group. Your partnerships and relationships are critical to success.
Hoskinson advocates that it’s OK if you fail and also encourages the idea of giving lots away for free to attract success.
Hoskinson created classes and educational content on Bitcoin and by that me met a lot of people which facilitated his personal success.
He further notes that 90% of the time you’ll fail, and that’s OK because in the process you’re making yourself smarter, stronger and a better person.
He also refers to money as a fiction and states that markets are fictions that we agree to believe in. You can’t let money define you.
Hoskinson is an advocate of Austrian economic model and Ron Paul, a prominent Libertarian.