#192 – Charles Hoskinson: Cardano

**Charles Hoskinson** (0:00)
The following is a conversation with Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, co-founder of Ethereum and a mathematician who's one of the most well-read and knowledgeable people on the technical side of cryptocurrency that I've ever spoken to. Quick mention of our sponsors, Gala Games, Allform, Indeed, ExpressVPN and Asleep. Check them out in the description to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that Charles is not just a mathematician or cryptocurrency innovator, but also a Colorado-based farmer of bison and mushrooms, a gamer, a fisherman and a world traveler. When I asked him if he has a nice professional picture of himself, he sent me a picture of him in Mongolia with a hawk on his shoulder, meeting the Mongolian president. That to me pretty much says it all. Speaking to the humor and the intelligence of a man who is bold, innovative, does not shy away from a bit of fun and a bit of controversy, which makes him a fascinating human being to explore ideas with. I do want to say in terms of ideas that at least to me, cryptocurrency is much bigger than just a way for a few Americans to make a quick buck through meme-driven speculation. It is technology that enables freedom from oppression, from suffering in the world because money is power. Mongolia, for example, was a reminder of that for me. Next day, after talking with Charles, I spoke with Wyoming Park, who is a North Korean defector, and who spent time in Mongolia, as many defectors do, in her and their escape from North Korea. Her story, the story of North Korea, the story of atrocities throughout the 20th century, committed by Hitler, Stalin and others, is a reminder that the world is full of darkness, but it is also full of beauty and love, and it is a world worth fighting for, in every way we know how. As usual, I'll do a few minutes of ads now, never any ads in the middle. I try to make this interesting, but I give you timestamps, so if you skip, please still check out the sponsors by clicking the links in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We're very picky about the sponsors we take on, so hopefully, if you buy their stuff, you'll find value in it, just as I have. This show is sponsored by Gala Games, a new sponsor and a fascinating one. They've created a gaming ecosystem on a blockchain, where in-game assets are NFTs that you can keep, trade, in the game and outside the game. They are attracting big game designers and I think have a real chance to create totally new gaming experiences. If all the stuff I've done in Diablo 2 and 3 was on the blockchain, my experience would, I think, be more immersive and persistent. Perhaps taking items from one game to another and blending the lines between game worlds. Maybe I could take the items I had in Diablo 2 and bring them back to Diablo 2 Resurrected coming out, I think, in the fall of 2021 I'm very excited about that. I'll probably spend a few hours playing that. I'm officially giving myself max three hours per month of gaming so I can still have a little bit of the thing I love without having to destroy my schedule completely. But back to Gala Games. I started playing the town simulation game called Town Star. I created a town called, very creatively, Lexington and started building stuff. I love it. So I'll do my best to release another gaming video soon. Anyway, check out gala.games.lex. That's gala.games.lex.
This show is sponsored by Allform, a furniture company. My favorite furniture company. They ship to your home real quick. It's easy to assemble. Looks beautiful and classy. Feels amazing. Like I said, I just love it. In fact, relevant to this particular podcast was Charles Hoskinson. Charles actually came over with a few of his friends, and I felt terrible because I have no furniture in my place. I haven't yet moved to Allform couches that I have in the previous place to this one. So we did this super long podcast with his friends just sitting in the carpet. One of the things I realized with the podcast, especially a long-form podcast, is everybody involved should be really comfortable. You have to create a certain place where you can just chill and relax. These conversations, to be honest, I know they're being recorded, but in themselves, they're just really enjoyable. I think whether you have a podcast or not, I recommend you have conversations with your friends or people you find interesting like that in general. In this world full of distraction, deep focused conversation is magic. And having nice couches like those from Allform is definitely going to be a big plus when you're trying to relax and talk about life. Anyway, go to allform.com/lex. They're offering 20% off all orders if you go to allform.com/lex. This episode is brought to you by Indeed, a hiring website. I've used them as part of many hiring efforts I've done for the teams I've led in the past. They have tools like Indeed Instant Match giving you quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed fit your job description immediately. I think this first phase of hiring is the most beneficial by tools like these, which is basically quickly bringing you a large set of good candidates. Now, as you get closer and closer to the final candidates you select, that's where more and more manual human labor is required. It's an art form, I think, more than a science. It's a process I'm going through now for my small personal projects. And if I launch a startup, it'll be a thing that I go through on a much larger scale. Hiring is damn difficult. You could honestly use all the help you can get. So right now, get a free $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job posts.