There has been a lot of controversy in the Cardano community as the network approaches a major milestone. This blockchain has been preparing to deploy an update via a Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event called “Vasil”, but there has been some disagreement between the community and the lead developer, Input Output Global (IOG).

“Vasil” will introduce network performance on Cardano that is set to improve its ecosystem and potentially expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. However, the HFC event has been pushed back on several occasions causing frustration in some sectors of the community.

IOG’s CEO and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson asked stakepool operators (SPOs) to upgrade to a new version of this network’s client v1.35.3. This request prompted two developers and influential community members, Adam Dean and Andrew Westberg, to publicly expressed their disagreement with Hoskinson.

Westberg took to Twitter and claimed the Cardano founder is “not on the same as his DevOps and test teams”. The developer and SPO believe version 1.35.3 require more testing. Thus, he asked the community the following:

Run 1.35.3 on the preview network. Run either 1.34.1 or 1.35.3 on the preprod network. Wait until they hardfork successfully and we verify there are no issues. THEN we can upgrade mainnet.

Adam Dean shared a similar sentiment claiming version 1.35.3 on the testnet is “catastrophically” broken as a result of a bug. The team at IOG, according to the developer, has been moving back and forth with this version of the Cardano client.

At what point, SPOs were told that 1.35.3 was “tested and ready for the Vasil Hard Fork”, but the community kept on discovering “bugs”. In that sense, Dean believes the process of deploying “Vasil” on mainnet is being “rushed”. Dean added:

Testnet is still broken, due to the majority of operators having upgraded to 1.35.2 on testnet to simulate a Vasil HFC event there, 1.35.3 is now incompatible and incapable of syncing the chain, legacy installations are still on one fork or another…

The “Kids Are Grown Up”, Cardano Founder Says

The events around the Vasil HFC event might have endangered the entire Cardano blockchain, Dean said. The developer believes that the project came close to a potentially apocalyptic event, adding that “if there were a nuclear clock for Cardano, we got perilously close to hitting midnight”.

Earlier today, Hoskinson replied to the concerns expressed by a sector of the ADA community. He classified the allegations about “rushing” v 1.35.3 as “bizarre and alarmist”.

The Cardano founder believes the code has been “thoroughly tested for months” in a process that included community members and SPOs. In that sense, any issues with the code have been “removed”. Hoskinson wondered:

We of course could as a community delay the launch of Vasil for a few months to retest code that’s already been tested a dozen times and is already running. Is that worth it to all the DApp developers who have been waiting for this update for almost a year now?

However, Hoskinson delegated the decision about implementing v 1.35.3 to the community. The current controversy was seen as a sign that users have more power and a voice about the changes on this blockchain, but IOG’s CEO expressed frustration with the process.

You’re the SPOs, you ultimately decide. I’m seriously tired of taking the blame on both sides. Cardano is decentralized. The people running the network ultimately decide upgrades not me.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 19, 2022 

The inventor of Cardano Charles Hoskinson has been the source of controversy in the crypto space. Journalist Laura Shin reported that Hoskinson was allegedly unable to complete a Ph.D. in Mathematics, and get degrees in the same field, as an undergrad, from the University of Colorado and the University of Boulder.

Related Reading | Why Cardano’s Founder Charles Hoskinson Was Right All Along

Hi Charles, speaking of fiction, do you want to address the discrepancies between your claims of dropping out of a PhD program and the schools’ assertions that you were enrolled as an undergrad? pic.twitter.com/gBULGEa6KK

— Laura Shin (@laurashin) March 6, 2022

In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, the inventor of Cardano and Input-Output Global (IOG) CEO addressed the accusations in an attempt to clear out his “integrity” and reputation. Cardano is supposed to operate as a decentralized project, but Hoskinson is an important leader of its community.

In addition, his company is the core developer of the network. Thus, any accusation made towards Hoskinson could reflect back on the price of ADA, as it seems to have happened during the past weeks, or could affect investors’ confidence in the project. Hoskinson said regarding the controversy:

I’m not here to address everything, certainly some things are a bit bizarre (…) and other things I think are a bit unfair and semantical. Yes, I do have a college degree. Yes, I do have graduate credits at CU Boulder in Math. Yes, I am a dropout because I didn’t by definition complete the things that I set out to do with the degrees programs I was in.

Hoskinson emphasized the work he and his team at IOG have completed with Cardano in a “very transparent open way”. These works have merits, he added, and “stands on its own”.

Later, he clarified that any attempts to tie his personal achievements and reputation to the Cardano project, as a way to challenge the network’s legitimacy and the work of IOG, is “not fair”. The project, Hoskinson highlighted, is a product of the combined effort of multiple people.

Inventor Of Cardano, An Angel Or A Demon?

Furthermore, Hoskinson tried to minimize his role by declaring that he or any founder of a project “does not matter”. Neither does, in his opinion, rumors, and personal fights. In that regard he noted:

Founders don’t matter, petty squabbles don’t matter, rivalries don’t matter. Yet there seems to be this amazing human tendency to declared angels and demons.

Thus, dividing the space into supporters and detractors. For the formers, the founder of the team behind a project is perceived as deities. For the latter, they embodied malicious intentions. Hoskinson added:

(…) humans are enormously complicated they have all kinds of things in life. Ups and downs, and we let you down sometimes, and other times we inspired you (…). The entire point of the labors of Cardano and all these other projects has always been to take the things where we can’t afford people to let us down (our money, our privacy, our life, our liberty) and put it in the hands of agents who never can by design.

Hoskinson called the current world state “bizarre” as a lot of parts of his life story. In addition, he talked about the ongoing narratives that are allegedly created to hurt Cardano and to omit “the remarkable things” Hoskinson claims to have achieved.

IOG’s CEO promised to write a memoir, telling his life story, when “he retires”. In the meantime, he will focus on the Cardano project, and recommended his viewers to take interest in “things that matter” and to “stop looking for heroes and villains”.

Despite the video trying to clarify the accusations, users still demanded Hoskinson provide more details. Via Twitter, the inventor of Cardano said to have received a degree in Associate in Science (AS) from Front Range Community College, almost 18 years ago.

At 18 an AS from front range community College in 2005. Go verify it. You guys are really having a meltdown

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 11, 2022

Related Reading | Vitalik Buterin Speaks To Argentina: “Decentralization Goes Far Beyond Money”

At the time of writing, ADA’s price trades at $0.79 with a 1.6% profit in the last 24-hours.

The inventor of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin launched a poll via his Twitter account asking his followers to choose between Cardano (ADA), Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and the U.S. Dollar. Buterin has been more active on social media after taking a self-imposed hiatus, and his latest poll sparked a debate amongst crypto users.

Related Reading | Why Delisting Of Cardano On eToro Could Benefit Its Price

The inventor of Ethereum presented two hypothetical scenarios specifically targeted at ETH holders. His poll’s question consisted of the following:

Poll for Ethereum community. You wake up in 2035, and 80% of all transactions + savings in the world are in one currency that is not ETH. Which would you prefer it to be?

The Ethereum community was presented with 8 choices, Cardano (ADA), and the aforementioned cryptocurrencies, alongside TRON (TRX), Binance Coin (BNB), China’s CNY, and NEO. As of press time, the poll records almost 1 million votes with 5 hours still to go for users to reply.

The poll was conducted in two separate posts due to the number of choices allowed by the social media platform. However, Cardano (ADA) seems to be the winning choice so far with 40,7% of the 557.040 votes cast on the first post.

Bitcoin (BTC) closely follows with 39,8%, TRON with the most votes, around 42,4% on the second post, and Solana (SOL) with 13%. The least voted currencies, at the moment, are the U.S. dollar and China’s yuan with less than 7% of the total votes in the first post suggesting that the crypto community lacks trust in the fiat currency.

Of the projects mentioned by Buterin, the Cardano community seems to have been the most active. The inventor of this network and CEO of its main developer company IOG, Charles Hoskinson, replied to Buterin with “Ok V, I’ll bite” and then encourage the ADA community to “win this one”.

OK V, I’ll bite https://t.co/kHPe7Uo2ty

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 14, 2022

Cardano And Ethereum’s Troublesome History

The Ethereum and Cardano community have a complicated past, as was reflected in the comments for the poll. Some users accused the project of “buying votes” and of driving their support on the backs of bots, such as Evan Van Ness who also pointed out the alleged low number of transactions on the Cardano blockchain.

literally less than 1 transaction per second on $ADA a few weeks ago pic.twitter.com/nC1Pf8nSrh

— Evan Van Ness (@evan_van_ness) January 14, 2022

However, IOG has been putting a lot of effort into providing proof that the Cardano ecosystem is growing. The network implemented smart contracts capabilities in Q4, 2021, but its critics claim the development of operational projects has been slow.

In a recent post made by the company, projects such as Cardano Cube, Essential Cardano, and others are confirmed to be on final testing, amongst others already testing on this network’s testnet. Similar data claims there are already around 200 projects building on this network with 18 already operational.

Prolly nothing?

Tune in to the mid month update tomorrow evening UK time for some updates on scaling plans for 2022 and meet a few more of the projects #BuildingOnCardano

Subscribe to the @InputOutputHK YouTube and hit the bell to get the alert #Cardano $ADA pic.twitter.com/Dt4qKBSG1I

— Tim Harrison (@timbharrison) January 13, 2022

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As of press time, ADA trades at $1,27 with a 1,1% loss in the past day.