Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Strongly Denies Narrative of "Giving Up Scalability for Governance"
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson strongly denied the narrative of "giving up scalability for governance," emphasizing that research into scalability has been ongoing since before Shelley, including L2 innovations, the eUTXO accounting model, zero-knowledge proofs, Partnerchains, and ultimately the Leios solution.
He stated that scalability is a highly challenging research problem that requires original papers and long-term R&D, and cannot be accelerated simply by increasing manpower. Advancing Voltaire governance during this period is intended to unlock the community treasury and achieve the parameter adjustments needed for scalability through decentralized voting, rather than a transfer of resources.
Currently, Cardano has complete designs for Leios and Peras, as well as mature L2 strategies, which are considered the best scalability solutions in the crypto space. Hoskinson emphasized that governance gives the community real voice and avoids the risk of Bitcoin-style splits (such as the BIP360/361 controversy).
Source: Public Information
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Charles Hoskinson has consistently adhered to an academic R&D approach since the launch of the Cardano mainnet in 2017. This response continues the long-term path from the Ouroboros PoS paper to the Leios high-throughput design, having previously advanced scalability technology systematically through multiple ePrint papers. The Voltaire governance is set to officially launch in 2024, paving the way for community-driven changes to scalability parameters.
On the capital front, Cardano has unlocked over 1 billion ADA in treasury funds for community proposals through governance, while keeping the core scientific team independent from the governance process. The strategic motive is to reduce single points of failure through decentralized decision-making and provide legitimacy for future large-scale parameter adjustments (such as the activation of Leios).
Similar to Ethereum's governance + technology parallel path from the Istanbul hard fork to the Dencun scalability, or Solana's early prioritization of high throughput followed by governance, Layer 1 public chains are currently transitioning from a "scale first, govern later" approach to a "governance-driven sustainable scalability" model. Projects with mature academic R&D and on-chain governance are significantly enhancing their long-term competitive edge.
Essentially, this is about capital concentration: a strong governance framework shifts the decision-making power for scalability from the core team to community voting, with mechanisms in place to prevent Bitcoin-style hard fork splits through Voltaire, while efficiently directing treasury funds towards community-approved scalability routes, accelerating the industry's capital towards public chains that address both technical depth and governance legitimacy.
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The more robust the governance, the harder it is for scalability to be hijacked by a single narrative; community voice is the long-term moat. The more time research requires, the easier it is for short-term narratives to distort the truth; patience has always been the greatest leverage in technical routes. When Bitcoin split due to a lack of governance, Cardano-style governance became the most expensive lesson; the more voices there are, the lower the risk of splits.