Charles Hoskinson likes to paint Cardano (ADA) as the future of blockchain. But where Ethereum and Solana attract billions of liquidity and thousands of developers, Cardano is struggling with low adoption, technical limitations and internal tensions.
Promises and disappointments
During the weird EVO conference in Las Vegas, Hoskinson recently presented a large-scale care initiative in Wyoming. According to him, American health care is “just rotten” and his clinic, with an announced budget of 200 million dollars, must offer a solution. The clinic would be open source and patient -oriented, and ultimately also integrate artificial intelligence and cryptographic technologies. Care would be free of charge for patients without financial resources.
This announcement fits into a recognizable pattern of ambitious promises. Already in 2021 a collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education was presented, with millions of students and teachers receiving a blockchain-based ID. In practice, this project was limited and later it was mainly described as a learning experience.
A similar picture arose after the introduction of smart contracts via the Alonzo-Hard Fork in September 2021. Where this moment should have made Cardano a full-fledged platform for decentralized applications, it ended on technical problems. The Extended Utxo model, which had to bring more safety and predictability, proved to be complicated and unattractive for developers. While Solana and Ethereum saw their ecosystem grow rapidly with Defi applications, NFTs and tokenization projects, Cardano fell behind.
That is also apparent from the figures. The total value that is currently fixed in Defi applications on Cardano, the TVL (Total Value Locked), is approximately $ 390 million. For comparison: Solana is at more than 12.5 billion and Ethereum even at $ 93 billion. The difference is also large in daily smart contract exhibitions: Ethereum processes an average of 1.4 million a day, Solana around 800,000, while Cardano gets no further than around 52,000. The number of active developers shows the same image: Ethereum has more than 3,200, Solana around 2,100 and Cardano only around 720 every month.
Administrative problems raise questions
In addition to the technological disadvantage, there are also administrative problems. Cardano is led by three core organizations: Input Output, the Cardano Foundation and Emurgo. But tensions between these parties have repeatedly led to public conflicts. In 2018, Hoskinson even called publicly to resign the then chairman of the Foundation.
In 2025 a new system was introduced with on-chain moods and budget cycles, intended to give the community more control. In practice, however, participation appears to be low. Many ADA holders do not vote, or opt for ‘Abstain’, so that only a small part of the ADA owners actually exert influence. Previous controversies, such as the accusations that Hoskinson tried to gain access to 600 million dollars in ADA during the Allegra-Hard Fork in 2021, also help.
In the meantime, Hoskinson’s attention is increasingly shifting to secondary projects. According to local estimates, the clinic in Wyoming, which officially represents an investment of 200 million dollars, appears to cost around 18 million. His support for Colossal Biosciences, which wants to return extinct animal species such as the Mammoet, also raises questions. Critics state that these types of projects distract projects from Cardano’s core mission and especially emphasize the gap between Hoskinson’s rhetoric and reality.
Gap between vision and reality
Cardano was once presented as a scientifically substantiated alternative to existing block chains. In theory, the combination of a careful design, formal verification and innovative governance had to ensure sustainable adoption. More than eight years later, the practice lags behind that promise. While Ethereum and Solana process millions of transactions per day and attract billions in liquidity, Cardano is still struggling with a limited scale, low developer activity and a management model that does not sufficiently mobilize the community.
Hoskinson continues to speak in a big way and announce ambitious plans, but the figures paint a completely different picture. The question is whether his broad vision ultimately contributes to the power of Cardano, or whether it leads to fragmentation and distraction. For the time being, the network seems to be driving more on promises than on tangible results.
Source: https://newsbit.nl/cardano-blijft-worstelen-visie-hoskinson-niet-te-rijmen-met-realiteit/
