Charles Hoskinson spoke to DL News about his investment in glow-in-the-dark botany and his friendship with Snoop Dogg’s son. The Cardano founder stated that his net worth is $1.2 billion. “I love solving difficult problems.”
Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Cardano blockchain, likes to talk about cryptocurrencies.
The 36-year-old billionaire also likes to talk about aliens. He funded an expedition to Papua New Guinea in 2023 to see if interstellar objects could have been created by extraterrestrial life. (It wasn’t.)
And he likes to wax about bison. He owns an 11,000-acre ranch in Wyoming where he supports up to 600 docile herbivores.
“You can’t do something like Bison and Cowboy,” he explained in an interview with DL News. “Bison just does whatever it wants to do.”
Mr. Hokshinson, whose family traces some of his family back to Florence, Italy, joked that he may be related to the Medici family, the powerful banking family that commissioned work for Leonardo da Vinci and others.
“They had a lot of kids,” he said.
In other words, this captain of the crypto industry is a true renaissance man.
“Difficult problem”
Hoskinson may not be the ruler of an Italian city-state, but he certainly has capital.
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In 2017, he participated in the launch of Cardano, a layer 1 blockchain aimed at challenging Ethereum, and also contributed to the founding of Ethereum.
Although Cardano is often referred to as a “zombie chain,” a blockchain with little activity compared to other layer 1s such as Ethereum or Solana, the cryptocurrency is valued at $12.5 billion, according to DefiLlama. Masu.
In June, Hoskinson responded to claims that blockchain is irrelevant by saying, “A giant screaming giant that will drag this industry in if necessary to solve the real-world economic, political, and social problems we all face.” He is a great person.” .
Still, it’s Hoskinson’s extracurricular investments that have caught the attention of crypto users. On a recent morning in Singapore, Hoskinson spoke at length about the drivers of his eclectic interests.
“I love solving difficult problems,” he said.
Other crypto founders are also shelling out big bucks for a variety of products.
Ethereum’s other co-founder, Gavin Wood, is investing in his own DJ career.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes purchased an aquarium containing three blacktip reef sharks for his crypto exchange’s offices in Hong Kong. And Yat Siu, chairman of cryptocurrency conglomerate Animoca Brands, has purchased a violin that once belonged to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
far away project
But Hoskinson, who owns a private jet and a Black Hawk helicopter and has a net worth of about $1.2 billion, stands out as a backer of outlandish projects.
“I’m friends with Steve Wolfram and all these other guys,” he said, referring to the famous computer scientist. “They always have pet problems, but when you work with them, you can make that pet problem your problem.”
“If you want to solve global warming…it makes sense to get involved with genetically modified plants.”
— Charles Hoskinson
In real life, Hoskinson comes across as more of a rugged academic than a flashy Silicon Valley mogul.
After growing up in Hawaii, he became one of the eight original co-founders of Ethereum in the early 2010s. Soon, tensions escalated with Vitalik Buterin, the blockchain network’s main architect.
Hoskinson wanted Ethereum’s founders to form a for-profit organization and accept venture funding. Buterin wanted to keep it a nonprofit organization.
Hoskinson left Ethereum in late 2014 and founded Input Output (IOHK) the following year with former colleague Jeremy Wood.
Styled as a general-purpose company that does everything blockchain-related, IOHK’s most famous product is Cardano.
He is also involved in many other projects, including Midnight, a Cardano sidechain, and Daedalus, a Cardano wallet.
glow in the dark weeds
Hoskinson’s interests aren’t just limited to crypto and blockchain. He also likes plants that glow in the dark.
“If you want to solve global warming or improve the environment, it makes sense to get involved with genetically modified plants,” he says.
Custom-built plants can not only produce organic lighting, but also sequester carbon, remove toxic chemicals and provide other environmental benefits, he said.
He showed DL News on his cell phone a photo of himself smiling in the dark and holding a neon green plant. Cultivated tobacco and turret watercress are some of the species his team has elucidated, he said.
“If it contains a lot of THC, it will glow red.”
— Charles Hoskinson
The Cardano founder declined to elaborate on the biological mechanism by which plants emit light, but said his team uses CRISPR, a new technology that uses enzymes to edit genes. .
Mr Hoskinson added that within a year the plants would be ready for public display. He also mentioned the bioengineering technology of cannabis that glows in the dark.
“When there’s a lot of THC in it, it glows red,” he said, referring to marijuana’s active ingredient. “If there’s even a little bit, it will glow green.”
Hoskinson is friends with Snoop Dogg’s son, Champ Medici. Did he talk to cannabis-obsessed rappers about growing glowing ganja?
“Maybe so,” he said. “I can’t confirm or deny it.”
longevity science
Hoskinson is also keen to inject himself with stem cells, self-renewing cells that play an important role in medical research.
His father and brother are both doctors. Mr. Hoskinson invested $100 million to establish a facility called the Hoskinson Health & Wellness Clinic in Gillette, Wyoming.
According to Cardano’s founder, the company plans to begin its first research trials under the supervision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hopefully next year.
Hoskinson, like many wealthy technology founders, is interested in the science of longevity.
This research trial will assess the effectiveness of stem cell injections combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or when patients breathe pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber.
“If my hypothesis is correct, we could reverse aging by more than 10 years,” he predicted.
One of the trial’s first subjects? Hoskinson himself.
“I’m going to be the first guy, just the first guy,” Hoskinson said. “As I’ve gained weight and gotten older, I wish I could live longer and be healthier.”
Doctors have already extracted his stem cells, and under the microscope Hoskinson is already being cloned in his clinic.
Cardano founders will begin receiving injections once the FDA approves clinical trials, he said.
godzilla
But patient zero’s potential for rejuvenation is not the only medical project Hoskinson has planned.
By next summer, the Wyoming Health Center will expand to 70,000 square feet and include cardiology, radiology, immunology and other services.
And like any good Medici, he plans to display “priceless artefacts” in his expanded clinic.
There will be a “four-dimensional object,” an “infinity room” inspired by legendary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and a diorama featuring a 6-foot Godzilla.
Why Godzilla?
“Just because,” he said. “We’ve gone crazy.”
Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai correspondent. Any tips? Email bweiss@dlnews.com.
