“Cardano is all marketing and no deliverable”

This post was inspired by this tweet from @TheBostonhabah.

Now before I begin, let me say I pride myself on calling out valid criticism, rather than being a rabid moon boy, so this post may or may not be a glowing praise of Cardano – let’s find out.

Ok so let’s start with the full tweet:

He is very intelligent and has great marketing strategies. For example, there’s always a prolong upgrade on some part of the protocol creating tons of “possibilities” on what to expect.

The argument the author is making here is that Charles Hoskinson keeps leading investors on with some on-going upgrade to Cardano and never delivering on his promises. They are probably taking a dig at the fact that the Goguen (smart contract) upgrade is yet to be launched. So let’s start with addressing that one first.

It is true to say the Goguen smart contract launch has been slipping a little. In fact this Reddit post by yours truly sums it up:

“End of Aug wasn’t “as planned” I would argue. The plan was for CH to give us a firmer date at the end of April, and that the “draft” target was end of June. Sounds like it’s slipped by 1-2 months but that’s ok. It was good to hear that a lot of the people that need to get testing on it can do so, soon. End of Aug or mid Sept – wherever we land, I’m super excited.” – Reddspark

The most recent IOG status update seems to agree with the mid Sept estimate. So it looks like there is indeed a slippage of about ~6 weeks from the beginning of August launch that was indicated back in March. I could also go back to last year where there were earlier expectations that Goguen might be out by Q4 2020, before the timeline got updated.

Ok, so here is where the twitter comment is not providing the full context so let me elaborate:

1. All blockchain projects suffer from delays – just ask Eth 2 which has had multi-year delays. Developing technology that will change the world is not an easy feat.
2. Charles Hoskinson opens him up to criticism through the fact he is very transparent about things. When you compare the roadmap of Harmony One for example you will see there are no mentions of specific dates for things that are meant to happen this year, just rough percentages indicating how complete a feature is. Notice how it would be almost impossible to hold them account on any delays? (Btw I found the Harmony One site an interesting project to learn about, so putting tribalism aside, go check it out)
3. Charles Hoskinson himself freely admits that they hadn’t been great at coming up with accurate estimates in the past but that they are getting better – just watch this.
4. in the same vid he also goes to great lengths to tell people that Sept is an estimate and that things can happen that delay it further, however the Twittersphere loves to take things at face value and blow things for FUD purposes.

The Twitter use could also perhaps be referencing the fact there is always another upgrade just around the corner. Correct – there is. It’s called a roadmap. Every blockchain project has such a roadmap as seen in the Harmony link above.

Finally I’d like to reflect on the promises I’ve heard and the outcome in the 2+ years since I’ve been a Cardano holder:

• I was told there would be an Incentivized Testnet launch in Q4 of 2019, and there was. A great way for early Ada holders to test out proof of stake and earn extra Ada in the process.
• In May of last year, the launch of Shelley in July was announced, and it happened on time. Ada price shot up dramatically as a result.
• We were told that decentralization would happen to a pre-defined schedule culminating in 100% decentralization in March of this year. This happened like clockwork.

Summary:

Blockchain technology is about to change the world. Of course there can be delays. And Cardano has certainly suffered from them in its longer-term history. However since the time I’ve been involved, I’ve only ever seen a founder that is trying his earnest to be as transparent as possible and a Twittersphere that is laced with venom that always tries to take things out of context. I have respect for those that take a balanced view, and from my Reddit posts you’ll see I’m the first to call out any slippages as I like to keep things honest. But I have very little respect for those that contort the truth in trying to convince others of their biased point of view.

Go learn about Harmony One, go learn about Cardano, DYOR, and don’t trust pithy, made for twitter, soundbites.

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