‘Roadmap is Complete,' Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Says

Charles Hoskinson said that the Cardano "roadmap is complete" and that everything he said would be built has finished. It came during a YouTube livestream Saturday where Hoskinson sparred with disgruntled investors as ADA sits down 94% from its 2021 high, per Decrypt data.

One viewer, named shevilkid1738, pushed Hoskinson's buttons by claiming he'd promised Cardano would overtake Bitcoin. The Cardano founder clapped back, saying there was no evidence he ever said that.

"I never promised that. I said I'd love for it to happen, and I believe that Cardano is a better store of value than Bitcoin is for a variety of reasons," Hoskinson said. "I don't promise price appreciation, or people overturning things. I say it's absolutely possible."

Shevilkid1738 responded over an hour later with a quote where Hoskinson said he "thinks" Cardano is "probably" going to become the biggest cryptocurrency in the world. Hoskinson highlighted the word think and said that he has "taken it as far as I can," explaining that the network is now decentralized and doesn't rely on him as a founder.

The viewer wasn't happy and called it "insane" for a founder to no longer have a responsibility to those who invested in their project.

"Under what conditions does that obligation end?" Hoskinson said, "The roadmap is complete. Everything I said is going to be built has been built. It reached four times the value of Honda. There's millions of people that have used it, and millions of people continue to use it. It is self-determining and self-governing, with its ability to pick and choose its own leaders without my consent."

The Cardano roadmap

Cardano’s roadmap was split into five eras: Byron, Shelly, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire.

Byron launched the network in September 2017, Shelley added staking in July 2020, and Goguen brought smart contracts via the Alonzo hard fork in September 2021. Basho, the scaling era, came via the Vasil upgrade in September 2022, before the Chang hard fork kicked off Voltaire, the governance era, in September 2024.

The final piece to the puzzle occurred in January 2025, when the Plomin hard fork gave ADA holders "real voting power" over the blockchain’s future. This marked the transition to "full decentralized governance," and apparently the end of the final roadmap era.

"The goal was simple. There's a roadmap. Byron, Basho, Shelley, et cetera, et cetera, and it's done," Hoskinson said. "I have no power over this ecosystem."

Ultimately, though, Hoskinson says the issue that investors have is financial.

"You want me to pump your bags. That's what you're really saying. The job's not done till it's pumped," he said. "But guess what? It's never done then, because somebody comes in at $3 ADA, and then expects it to be five. And then somebody comes in at $5 ADA and expects it to be seven. If you retire at five, you've defrauded the person at five. If you retire at three, you've defrauded the person at three. There's no winning."

ADA hit an all-time high of $3.09 in 2021 and has been on a downward slide ever since. By 2023, it hit a low of $0.25 before pumping 384% to a high of $1.21 by the end of 2024. Since then, its price has tanked 86% to $0.17.

"Apparently, I have to go pump your bags, and if I don't, I'm a scammer," Hoskinson said. "Would you sign up for that deal? Would any human being sign up for that? I thought slavery was made illegal."