Cardano's Hoskinson Reveals Bitcoin Competitors Now Have The Upper Hand‬: Here’s Why

Charles Hoskinson argues that Bitcoin is overdue for reinvention, describing it as “2009 technology” despite billions of dollars in research and development across the broader blockchain sector.

Speaking at Consensus 2026, Hoskinson said that post-quantum upgrades represent an opportunity for Bitcoin to innovate rather than ignore advances achieved by competing networks.

Data from competing blockchains supports Hoskinson’s assertion. Since 2020, Solana has processed more than 103 billion transactions and handled 5.37 million in the past hour alone.

Moreover, Solana has achieved a real-time throughput of 1,492 transactions per second, with a theoretical ceiling of 65,000 tx/s. The 785 validators and a Nakamoto Coefficient of 19 reflect significant decentralization, while chain revenue and a low transaction fee of $0.006 indicate efficient, scalable financial operations.

Ethereum, launched in 2015, has processed 3.24 billion transactions and sustained 23.16 transactions per second (tx/s) over the past hour, with finality at approximately 12 minutes and 48 seconds. The nearly one million validators secure $74.14 billion in staked value, demonstrating strong economic security and extensive developer engagement across 411 repositories.

By contrast, Bitcoin’s performance is deliberately conservative. With roughly 1.3 billion total transactions, its real-time throughput is at 10.18 tx/s, and block times average just over five minutes, achieving economic finality in about an hour.

That said, the Nakamoto Coefficient of three reveals concentrated mining influence, while its 128 miners and 901 EH/s hashrate provide unparalleled network security. However, development activity does not align with the throughput-focused expansion observed on other blockchains, despite a solid presence, with 1,922 developers across 22 repositories.

Meanwhile, Cardano currently processes 250 transactions per second, while the upcoming Hydra upgrade aims to increase throughput to potentially one million TPS, positioning it competitively against both Ethereum and Solana.

Hoskinson contends that the market must expand beyond finance, suggesting that services such as Tinder should be deployed on the blockchain. In his view, crypto’s next rally will be driven not just by money, but by gaming and mainstream applications that catalyze broader adoption.