Cardano Founder Drops Ethereum Obituary: ’15 Years Tops’ Before Irrelevance

Charles Hoskinson just lit the fuse on crypto’s longest-running feud—claiming Ethereum’s dominance has an expiration date. The Cardano architect doubled down on his ’flippening’ prophecy during a recent AMA, framing it as inevitable rather than inflammatory.

Why the countdown? Hoskinson points to Ethereum’s creeping institutionalization—layer-2 band-aids, regulatory capture risks, and a developer exodus to faster chains. ’They’re building the next Wall Street sandbox,’ he quipped, ’while we’re coding the internet’s backbone.’

The zinger? His timeline coincides perfectly with Wall Street’s next predicted boom-bust cycle. Coincidence—or coded shade at ETH’s coming ’legacy chain’ status?

In brief

• Charles Hoskinson states that Ethereum could disappear within 10 to 15 years.
• He points out three major Ethereum errors: the accounting model, the virtual machine, and an ineffective consensus.
• He praises Cardano’s technological strengths, notably the UTXO model and Hydra.
• He predicts that Ethereum will be surpassed by Bitcoin DeFi.

The causes of Ethereum’s demise, according to Charles Hoskinson

The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, launched a scathing critique against Ethereum, stating that the second largest blockchain in the crypto universe might not survive the next 15 years. During an “Ask Me Anything” session broadcast on April 23, he highlighted three major design mistakes: a poor accounting model, an unsuitable virtual machine, and a poorly chosen consensus.

According to Hoskinson, these technical decisions now hinder Ethereum’s ability to evolve. He also criticizes the addition of layer-two solutions and complex slashing mechanisms, considered ineffective: “They implemented a lot of strange stuff, but the consequences are starting to show.“

For Charles Hoskinson, Ethereum’s real Achilles’ heel is its lack of robust on-chain governance. He believes it would take five to seven years to build an effective governance system, which is likely to drastically slow down any reform. “Vitalik will not be able to maintain network cohesion indefinitely by sheer force of will,” he warns.

Cardano as a credible alternative?

The founder of Cardano also compared the trajectories of Ethereum and Cardano. He highlights the technological choices of his own blockchain: a virtual machine based on RISC-V, an extended UTXO model, and scalability via Hydra and the Midnight sidechain. “We have already integrated the right decisions that Ethereum should adopt“, he states.

Charles Hoskinson predicts that fast monolithic blockchains and the rise of Bitcoin DeFi could quickly surpass Ethereum in liquidity and user experience. He mentions a risk of a “hostile divorce” between Ethereum’s layer 1 and its scaling solutions.

Ethereum is a brilliant project but a victim of its own success, according to Charles Hoskinson. At a time when the ETH is surging 30%, without a profound overhaul of its architecture and governance, the blockchain could end up outdated, like MySpace or BlackBerry once were. A statement that reignites the debate on the future of decentralized crypto.

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