Ethereum has 15 years left? Cardano’s Hoskinson stokes doubt over ETH’s future

Charles Hoskinson, Cardano founder and CEO of IOHK, has expressed serious doubts about the survival of Ethereum, arguing that it may not survive the next 10 to 15 years.

During an AMA session on X on April 23, Hoskinson stated, “So, I don’t think Ethereum will survive, you know, more than 10 years to 15 years.” He attributed this to major design features, which included a consensus model, protocol structure, and governance structure.

Surprise AMA 04/23/2025 https://t.co/TixMvcx34t

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) April 23, 2025

Hoskinson likened Ethereum to BlackBerry, a former technological giant that could not adapt and has now lost its relevance. He said that Ethereum had the wrong model of accounting, virtual machine, and consensus method. In particular, he criticized Ethereum’s version of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which he dismissed as ineffective regarding long-term scaling and decentralization.

He also dismissed layer-2 solutions for Ethereum as “parasitic” to the mainnet. Hoskinson stated that such platforms only consume value from the chain and do not contribute to the functionality of Ethereum, but rather reduce it.

He further noted that this was compounded by a lack of on-chain governance. According to him, Ethereum’s current off-chain governance mechanism degrades cohesiveness and hinders efficiency in policymaking.

Proposed fixes and growing competition

Hoskinson highlighted some alterations that could help to adjust Ethereum for future trends in the blockchain industry. He advocated for a shift to delegated proof of stake, the same adopted by the Sui network, and a direct transition to on-chain governance. He noted that getting rid of layer-2 dependency would probably cause a “hostile separation” between Ethereum and the scaling solutions.

According to him, new entrants such as Cardano, Solana, and Sui stand a better chance of capturing the same market share as Ethereum. Specifically, he highlighted that Cardano has what can be considered a complete roadmap, decentralized governance, and better sidechain integration as proof of a better structure. He added that dethroning Ethereum is possible once DeFi features launch on Bitcoin or a more efficient setting emerges.

Hoskinson stated that Ethereum is still a “brilliant project,” but it is now a victim of its own growing multifaceted development and popularity. His comments follow previous criticism, such as referring to Ethereum as a dictatorship under the leadership of Vitalik Buterin.

Crypto lawyer John E. Deaton responded to Hoskinson’s comments on social media, saying, “Fascinating to listen to an Ethereum co-founder opine on whether Ether can even survive.” He further clarified that he was not aligning himself with any of the sides but was open to hearing from the rest of the community.

ADA and ETH under pressure amid market downturn

As Hoskinson’s remarks circulated, market data reflected heightened volatility. In the last 24 hours, as is evident from the CoinMarketCap chart, several cryptocurrency assets suffered bearish pressure, especially Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum (ETH).

Cardano is currently trading at $0.6839 and has been down 1.60% in the last 24 hours, but it is up 10.07% on the weekly charts. The daily trading volume has gone down by 13.62% to $866.8 million, indicating a decline in trading activity.

Meanwhile, Ethereum is at $1,742, registering a 3% decline in the last 24 hours but increasing by 9.10% in the last week. At the same time, its 24-hour volume was down by 33.50%, averaging $18.2 billion due to reduced activity among traders.

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