Looking for aliens, raising bison, and the science of longevity, Cardano's founder has become an alternative patron in the crypto community
By Ben Weiss , DL News
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Cardano blockchain, loves to talk about cryptocurrencies. The 36-year-old billionaire also loves to talk about aliens. In 2023, he funded an expedition to Papua New Guinea to see if an interstellar object could be made by aliens, but it turned out not to be.
He also loves to gush about bison. He owns an 11,000-acre ranch in Wyoming, which is home to 600 of the gentle herbivores. "You can't treat bison the way cowboys treat them," he explained in an interview. "Bison need to be free-range."
Hoskinson, who traces part of his family lineage back to Florence, Italy, jokes that he may be related to the Medici, a powerful banking family that commissioned works from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci.
In other words, this crypto industry leader is a true "Renaissance Man."
"problem"
Hoskinson may not have been the ruler of an Italian city-state, but he did have a capital background.
In 2017, he helped launch Cardano, a L1 blockchain designed to challenge Ethereum, which he also co-founded.
Although Cardano is often labeled a "zombie chain," or a blockchain with less on-chain activity than other L1s such as Ethereum or Solana, Cardano (ADA) has a market cap of approximately $12.5 billion, according to DefiLlama data. (PANews Note: Hoskinson recently said in an interview that he had changed his stance on Bitcoin and announced that Cardano L1 would transform into Bitcoin L2.)
In June, Hoskinson responded to comments that blockchain is irrelevant to the real world by saying: “If it had to solve the real-world economic, political and social problems that we all face, that would be a huge force that would drag down the entire industry.”
Still, Hoskinson’s side hustle has caught the eye of some crypto users. Recently in Singapore, Hoskinson detailed what drives his interest. “I just like solving puzzles,” Hoskinson said.
Other crypto founders have also spent heavily to support their own "fancy" businesses. Another Ethereum co-founder, Gavin Wood, invested in his DJ business. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes bought a fish tank with three blacktip reef sharks for his crypto exchange office in Hong Kong. Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu bought a violin that once belonged to Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
Advanced Projects
Yet Hoskinson, who owns a private jet and a Blackhawk helicopter and claims a net worth of about $1.2 billion, is a backer of forward-thinking projects.
“I’m friends with Steve Wolfram (a computer scientist) and all these people,” he said. “They always come with the problems that they care about most, and when you work with them, you can make those problems yours.”
In person, Hoskinson is less a flashy Silicon Valley tycoon than an affable academic. After growing up in Hawaii, he became one of the original eight co-founders of Ethereum in the early 2010s. Soon, relations with Vitalik Buterin, the blockchain network’s main architect, became strained.
Hoskinson wants the ethereum founders to create a for-profit entity and take venture capital. Buterin wants to maintain a nonprofit organization.
Ethereum co-founder Hoskinson is funding longevity research
Image credit: Rita Franca/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
In late 2014, Hoskinson left Ethereum, and the following year he founded Input Output (IOHK) with his former colleague Jeremy Wood. IOHK is a general company involved in all things blockchain, with its most famous product being Cardano. It is also involved in a number of other projects, including the Cardano sidechain Midnight and the Cardano wallet Daedalus.
Luminous Plants
Hoskinson’s interests extend beyond cryptography or blockchain. He also likes luminous plants.
"If you want to address global warming or improve the environment, it makes sense to get involved in plant genetic engineering."
He believes that specially engineered plants could not only produce organic lighting but also sequester carbon, eliminate toxic chemicals and provide other environmental benefits.
He showed a photo on his phone of himself smiling in the dark, holding a neon green plant. He identified cultivated tobacco and Arabidopsis as some of the species his team has illuminated.
While Hoskinson declined to elaborate on the biological mechanisms that made his plants glow, he did say his team used a new technique called CRISPR that uses an enzyme to edit genes.
Hoskinson will be displaying the plants publicly within a year. He also mentioned bioengineering glow-in-the-dark cannabis.
“If it’s got a lot of THC, it’s going to glow red,” he mused, referring to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. “If it’s got a little bit, it’s going to glow green.”
Longevity Science
Hoskinson is also keen to inject himself with stem cells, self-renewing cells that play a vital role in medical research.
Hoskinson, whose father and brother are both doctors, has invested $100 million to build a health and wellness company called Hoskinson Health in Gillette, Wyoming, which he said will begin its first research trial next year, overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Like many wealthy tech company founders, Hoskinson is interested in the science of longevity. The research trial will evaluate the efficacy of combining stem cell injections with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber.
"If my hypothesis is correct, we can reverse aging by more than 10 years." The first batch of test subjects will include Hoskinson himself. "I am getting fatter and older. It would be great if I could live longer and healthier."
Doctors have extracted his stem cells, and his mini-Hoskinson cells have begun to divide in his body. When the FDA approves a clinical trial, Hoskinson will begin receiving injections.
But that’s not the only medical project he has planned.
By next summer, he plans to expand his Wyoming health center to 70,000 square feet and include cardiology, radiology and immunology, among other disciplines.
And, like any good Medici, he would fill the expanded clinic with “priceless works of art.”
These include "four-dimensional objects," "infinity rooms" inspired by legendary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and a 6-foot-tall Godzilla-themed diorama.
Related reading: Interview with Ink founder and Optimism co-founder: How does Ink build the DeFi ecosystem with Superchain?
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