BroadChain News, April 28 - According to Bitcoinist, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, in a video released on April 27, publicly escalated a dispute with Iagon's leadership, accusing them of crossing his personal and professional "red lines" by targeting Midnight community members and ambassadors in a funding proposal controversy. Hoskinson stated that criticizing him or Input Output is acceptable, but expanding the dispute to harass volunteers and community participants is intolerable.
Hoskinson outlined two red lines: first, being accused of criminal or illegal activities, which Input Output faced in a previous ADA voucher controversy but was later clarified through an audit; second, attacking individuals related to projects built or supported by Input Output, including ambassadors and volunteers. He accused Iagon's CEO of first voting against Input Output's funding proposal and then pressuring Midnight ambassadors, with its CTO even calling Input Output "evil" due to Hoskinson. Hoskinson emphasized that voting against the proposal itself is not the issue, but personalizing the dispute against community members crosses the line.
Hoskinson expressed a loss of confidence in the integrity and ethics of Iagon's leadership, describing their behavior as "unstable and bizarre," and hinted that Iagon might be preparing to leave the Cardano ecosystem. In response, Input Output will support more decentralized infrastructure options, including Filecoin and Walrus, and hopes Blockfrost will increase its capabilities. Currently, Cardano's governance and funding processes are under pressure, with the total fiat value of current alliance proposals falling below $50 million, compared to Input Output's $97.5 million proposal last year. Hoskinson called this an efficiency improvement but acknowledged that the decline in ADA price has forced cuts. As of press time, ADA is trading at $0.2473.