Charles Hoskinson Says Cardano (ADA) Had No Value When He Received It

Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, said Cardano (ADA) was worth zero when he received it, tying the claim to the network’s prelaunch state even though vouchers redeemable for ADA were sold before launch.

“It was worth zero when I got it,” Hoskinson said during a Nov. 7 online Q&A. He explained that Cardano had not launched and had no ecosystem at the time. He named Ouroboros, extended UTXO, Plutus and ecosystem building as work behind ADA’s later value.

Work on Cardano started in 2015. Its network launched in September 2017. Before the launch, ADA vouchers were sold in five tranches across Asia from September 2015 to January 2017. Buyers could exchange the vouchers for ADA after the network launched.

The public sale distributed 25,927,070,538 ADA. Proceeds totaled 108,844.5 Bitcoin (BTC), and the sale’s listed net dollar cost was $62,236,134. Those figures describe the voucher sale; they do not establish an exchange-market price for ADA before launch.

The launch distribution made 31,112,484,646 ADA available and included allocations to IOHK, EMURGO and the Cardano Foundation. The distribution gives no details of Hoskinson’s personal allocation, its timing or its value.