Cardano often faces criticism from members of the crypto community. In particular, the developers are accused of being too academic in their approach to the development of the project.

In other words, they pay too much attention to the study of various perspectives and innovations, due to which real changes are not often implemented in the blockchain.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson

Also, the ADA cryptocurrency from the Cardano network is not behaving in the best way. As of today, it is 87.5 percent off its all-time high of 2 September 2021 – which is a poor result considering the strong market growth in early 2024.

Chart of Cardano ADA cryptocurrency value over time

The same Efirium is now below the record price of 10 November 2021 by 46.2 percent. And this allows investors to hope for ETH price records to be updated in the future.

Etherium ETH cryptocurrency value chart over time

What is Efirium being criticised for?

In an interview with Cointelegraph representatives, Hoskinson criticised the governance model of Etherium. According to the developer, it depends too much on its creator Vitalik Buterin.

As Charles pointed out, the blockchain can choose the eternal simplicity of the protocol along the lines of Bitcoin or it can “pick a king” to govern. At the same time, Cardano’s new governance model solves the trilema of managing what happens on the network, which consists of efficiency, effectiveness and integrity.

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Etherium.

Such is achieved through delegated representatives and organisations called Intersect, which reduces complex governance issues to a vote. Here is Charles’ comment on the subject.

If you have these three things in place, you have a good chance of avoiding the anarchy of Bitcoin or the dictatorship of Efirium. You do have something that can move forward with one voice, but at the end the system is still decentralised because it represents everyone.


Such wording is a reference to the so-called blockchain trilemma, which was mentioned by Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Etherium, about eight years ago. At that time, the developer stated that a blockchain network cannot be sufficiently decentralised, secure and scalable. That is, achieving success in two of these components will allegedly lead to problems with the third.

However, today, cryptocurrency enthusiasts consider the trilemma irrelevant. Still, the development of blockchains has led to the fact that modern networks are advanced in all of these components.


Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson

Hoskinson was asked to explain his controversial statement comparing Etherium to a dictatorship. He noted that the “whole concept” of the altcoin begins and ends with thirty years of Buterin. Here’s his quote.

Everyone is waiting for a roadmap for the development of the project from him. Everyone expects him to inspire, and he’s also the only person with enough power to rally people. If you take him out of the equation right now, what will the next hardfork look like, and how fast can they do it?

Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin

According to Hoskinson, Buterin was mainly responsible for changing Etherium’s roadmap away from optimising the underlying blockchain layer and towards layer 2 networks for scalability. The developer continues.

Where did the idea of implementing layer 2 or rollups come from? Was it some random developer or Vitalik Buterin who raised the discussion around the issue at every corner?

While Hoskinson believes that Etherium is heavily influenced by Buterin’s vision, Vitalik doesn’t have unilateral power in a decentralised network. It uses a mix of offchain and onchain governance, involving the Ethereum Foundation organisation as well as the community and stakeholders.

Critical decisions are made in key developer meetings, which are watched by everyone. Here’s an example of such a video.

Hoskinson himself was one of the eight original co-founders of Etherium and CEO of the Ethereum Foundation. However, his vision for the protocol in terms of revenue generation clashed with Buterin’s, and the young creator fired him from the project at a meeting in Switzerland in 2014.

In this regard, there may be a personal dislike of the developer towards Vitalik in the above statement.


Charles Hoskinson's arguments do not seem convincing. Although Vitalik Buterin has indeed become the creator and ideologist of Etherium, his role in the project becomes less and less every year. In addition, there are enough developers in the Ethics network who are engaged in creating various applications and introducing improvements to the blockchain itself. So we can assume that this network will not go anywhere without Vitalik's participation, and its development will continue.