Cardano Founder Clarifies Partnership Strategy

In a livestream on December 21, titled “Partnerships,” Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson addressed lingering questions about the relationship between Input Output (IO) and the Cardano Foundation (CF), while also offering broader insights into the ecosystem’s path forward. During the nearly 40-minute session, Hoskinson responded to a public remark by a longtime community member, Rick McCracken, touching on everything from on-chain governance to potential integrations with ecosystems like Polkadot, Hedera Hashgraph, and more.

Hoskinson Takes Another Jab At The Cardano Foundation

The conversation stemmed from McCracken’s post on X questioning whether disagreements between IO and the CF might jeopardize external partnerships. In that post, McCracken expressed concern, writing, “If Charles, Tam, and Fred can’t build a lasting professional relationship between IOHK and Cardano Foundation inside of the Cardano ecosystem, why should I expect them to build the lasting professional relationship with organizations outside the ecosystem?”

Hoskinson responded directly, explaining his frustration with what he calls a longstanding, “philosophical and fundamental difference” between the two entities. Throughout the livestream, he emphasized that these disagreements largely revolve around the foundation’s structure and its use of community funds, which he believes should be steered by the ecosystem rather than a closed board.

“For three years, there’ve been disagreements and fights because there’s a philosophical and fundamental difference between the Cardano Foundation and Input Output,” Hoskinson stated. “Some fights are worth having, because that’s a war chest for our ecosystem and it’s under the control of people that are unaccountable to the community.”

A central point of contention, according to Hoskinson, is the Cardano Foundation’s control over an estimated $600 million worth of ecosystem funds. He underscored that, in his view, these funds are “the community’s money” and should be deployed with robust transparency and accountability.

“It’s $600 million of your money, my money, everybody’s money,” Hoskinson said. “That’s the philosophical issue, and for three years behind the scenes, our people and their people tried to hammer this out.”

Hoskinson insisted that conflicts over governance are not simply “petty differences.” Instead, he described them as core to Cardano’s decentralized identity and future, particularly as the platform moves toward on-chain governance through CIP-1694 and prepares for major developments in 2025.

Upcoming Cardano Partnerships

Despite internal governance challenges, Hoskinson stressed that external collaborations remain robust. He pointed to ongoing talks with various blockchain ecosystems—Polkadot, Hedera Hashgraph, and Elrond (now MultiversX)—as well as discussions with big tech players like Microsoft Azure.“We have never had better opportunities as an ecosystem to make partnerships with people because the reality is we have great tech,” he said. “What are we doing with the Polkadot ecosystem, what are we doing with Elrond, what are we doing with Hedera Hashgraph? … We’re going to have some great announcements.”

With regards to Microsoft Azure, Hoskinson revealed: “[I’m] talking to all the legacy people as well. Especially the big guys. Just had a meeting with Microsoft Azure because they’re a confidential Computing Consortium. This whole idea of merging this big infrastructure, it’s a great play for Midnight.”

Speaking on the latter, Hoskinson highlighted Midnight, an upcoming Cardano-based protocol focused on data protection, privacy, and confidential computing, which he said has “95 partnerships” already in the pipeline.

Throughout the livestream, Hoskinson consistently underscored the importance of on-chain governance as the long-term mechanism to resolve disagreements and steer Cardano’s evolution. He applauded community-driven initiatives like Intersect and Pragma, both aimed at bringing more coordination among builders, core developers, and other stakeholders.

“Your duty as a Constitutional Committee Member—and it’s the duty of the Cardano people who participate in governance—is to put the spotlight on the on-chain governance system,” he noted, urging individuals across the community to “grow up” and engage productively.

Despite acknowledging tensions, Hoskinson remains optimistic about Cardano’s trajectory. He referenced the ecosystem’s growing DeFi and NFT sectors—pointing to teams such as Midgard and Gummy Worm on Layer 2, and the upsurge in memecoins within the Cardano ecosystem.

“We have a great DeFi ecosystem,” Hoskinson said, naming multiple projects. “Every year, month after month, they grow in population, they grow in TVL, they keep releasing new additions. They’re learning how to build on Cardano.”

At press time, ADA traded at $0.90.