Charles Hoskinson: From DARPA to Cardano, Gloves Full of Bullet Ants and More

In a wide-ranging conversation with former Navy SEAL and YouTuber Shawn Ryan, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson laid out the philosophical roots of crypto, linking blockchain directly to the ideals of liberty, trust, and decentralized power.

The interview also drew some controversy about whether Hoskinson is a liar as he talked about his days as a secret agent in DARPA and the time he jumped out of an Apache helicopter.

As one Twitter user wrote: “You really need to listen to all five hours of it for those out of context antics to make sense and to really understand the human side of Charles. You know, not just the genius entrepreneur archetype you’re familiar with.”

The Good: Charles Hoskinson Breaks Down the Importance of Crypto

Drawing from his early involvement in the Ron Paul movement, Hoskinson connected the dots between Austrian economics, sound money, and the failures of fiat.

“If you don’t have good money, you don’t have liberty… Bad money creates socialism. Good money gives you agency.” — Charles Hoskinson, Shawn Ryan Show

Hoskinson likened blockchains to constitutions: immutable, transparent, and resistant to political coercion. For him, crypto was a natural progression.

“In crypto, my use is identical to a poor farmer’s in Sagal,” Hoskinson opined. “In the fiat world, Bill Gates and I are treated very differently.”

Hoskinson pushed back against the idea that tokens are just speculative chips in a global casino. In his view, they’re what power decentralized systems by keeping infrastructure open, resilient, and out of the hands of tech monopolies.

The Insane From Charles… But Also Interesting

In some of the crazier stories told in the interview, before launching Cardano, Charles Hoskinson collaborated with DARPA, jumped out of helicopters, and even participated in a ritual ceremony in Brazil involving gloves full of bullet ants.

Additionally, he was part of a team that de-extincted the direwolf, helped retrieve extrasolar fragments from the Pacific, and funded bioluminescent plant research.

According to Laura Shin, Charles Hoskinson claimed that he is a CIA asset and a DARPA contributor who fell in love with a female spy after falling from an Apache. You can't make this shit up LMAO pic.twitter.com/ZiKLOTHLmt

— MORBID-19 (@JuhyukB) March 9, 2022

The ADA community breathes really hard and types fast on their keyboard when you psychoanalyze Charles Hoskinson. But, regardless, Hoskinson’s crypto knowledge shone through.

He believes crypto’s biggest flaw has been its adversarial mindset. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum, crypto vs. banks. His alternative: build interoperable systems where success is mutual.

“Cardano hasn’t gone down once in eight years. You can’t build real finance on unstable ground.” — Hoskinson

Is Charles Hoskinson a Sociopath?

Here’s an excerpt from the book Out of the Ether, about what the other Ethereum co-founders thought of Charles:

As it states: “A pathological liar, sociopath, and someone who tried to convince the Ethereum team that he was actually Satoshi.”

Well.. love him or hate him, Charles Hoskinson is crypto’s closest thing to a rock star. Unlike Vitalik, he’s turned Cardano into a brand with Bond-like flair. And while Cardano’s tech holds up, let’s be honest that it is Hoskinson’s charisma that is half the reason Cardano has Wall Street’s attention.

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