Charles Hoskinson used a Nov. 5 video handle to rebut a renewed wave of criticism that Cardano has “failed on scalability,” centering his response on two pillars: Hydra, Cardano’s off-chain scaling stack, and Leios, a forthcoming Ouroboros improve that he says now has a whole design and a transparent path to mainnet in 2026.
Hoskinson’s remarks have been framed as a direct reply to a thread by Cyber Capital CEO Justin Bons alleging Cardano is capped at “23 transactions per second,” dismissing the influence of batching, payment markets, Hydra, and the Ouroboros Leios roadmap, and concluding that Enter Output World (IOG) has shifted focus to a brand new chain. “You’re entitled to an opinion, however you’re not entitled to your individual details,” Hoskinson mentioned, calling the conclusion “blatantly mistaken” and “pathetic” for ignoring public specs and ongoing engineering work. He pushed again on claims that Leios had been deserted: “There exists a CIP. Now we have the blueprint. We all know tips on how to do it.”
Cardano Has Not Failed On Scalability
Central to his argument is that Leios has moved from analysis to a totally specified implementation monitor. Hoskinson held up the CIP for Ouroboros Leios, emphasizing that the end-to-end design was accomplished solely this yr after “years of paper writing, prototyping, and simulation.”
In his telling, the protocol goals to string the trade’s core dilemma of decentralization, safety, and throughput with out leaning on centralized shortcuts. “What will we care about on this trade? Can we care about decentralization or not?” he requested, warning that when methods optimize round low-cost, high-throughput configurations with heavy {hardware} calls for, “nobody has any incentive to vary the established order.”
Hydra, he argued, is already dwell and delivering sensible capability positive factors that critics are “discounting.” As proof, he cited the Glacier drop, saying “33.6 million accounts have been loaded into that factor and we have been in a position to function no downside in any respect,” and that Hydra continues to “evolve and get extra superior.” Whereas he didn’t current throughput figures past disputing the 23 TPS narrative, the thrust of his rebuttal was that Cardano’s scaling arc is cumulative: Hydra now, Leios subsequent.
On Leios timelines, Hoskinson was unambiguous. “Sure, it’ll ship in 2026. No if, ands, or buts about it,” he mentioned, including that IOG has instituted “a 24/7 implementation, a follow-the-sun mannequin to get Leios out in market sooner.” He additionally previewed a devoted Leios web site “earlier than the tip of the month” to publish day by day updates because the community “march[es] in the direction of it,” and claimed “greater than a dozen firms” are engaged in implementation work alongside a number of node purchasers. His message to the broader ecosystem was equally pointed: “In 2026, we’re going to discover a path to get linear Leios on Cardano,” urging operators to “maintain off on the adoption” of nodes that don’t help Leios so the characteristic may be activated network-wide.
Past scaling mechanics, the handle veered into governance and trade construction. Hoskinson asserted Cardano targets “50% Byzantine resistance” whereas preserving decentralization, contending that no main chain—he named Bitcoin and Ethereum amongst others—has achieved at-scale decentralization with out trade-offs. He linked scaling work to the venture’s self-image as one of many few ecosystems “carrying on our backs the unique dream of Satoshi,” warning that trade consolidation round ETFs, financial institution custody, and centralized stablecoins dangers “put[ting] the chains on humanity for the remainder of time.”
Advertising, Not The Know-how
Hoskinson situated Cardano’s bottleneck not in analysis or engineering however in go-to-market. “Our downside is just not our know-how… Our downside proper now’s advertising and adoption, deal making and partnerships,” he mentioned, criticizing entities within the ecosystem that he claims acquired “a whole bunch and a whole bunch and a whole bunch of tens of millions of ADA” or “over a billion” for adoption efforts which have been “pulling tooth.” He credited a brand new foundation-driven initiative—offered by critics as a “pivot” away from Cardano—as having already attracted listings, integrations, and a path to “tier one stables,” insisting such work in the end routes again to Cardano utilization.
The tone all through was combative, reflecting frustration with narratives he sees as transferring the goalposts. “Leios goes to ship. It’s an actual factor. It exists. Take a look at CIP 164,” he mentioned. “After we flip it on, they’ll transfer the goalpost and it is going to be one thing else.”
He portrayed the approaching yr as a marketing campaign to shut the engineering loop and reorient on adoption: “Now we have the know-how. Now we have the ecosystem. We simply have to take a position closely in [marketing and adoption]… and we are going to.” The message to skeptics was unvarnished—“You may’t low cost Hydra… you may’t low cost the progress made with Leios.”
At press time, ADA traded at $.05359
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