And Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently spoke live on Twitter regarding the bankruptcy of the Genesis crypto exchange and the possibility that its parent company, Digital Currency Group, may sell its news portal, CoinDesk.
Even though Hoskinson hasn’t yet seen financials or spoken to anyone at the company, he estimates it would cost regarding $200 million to buy CoinDesk.
“I want to figure out how to return to journalistic integrity.” Hoskinson said during the livestream.
Buying Coindesk https://t.co/YNJYjKhIlx
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 19, 2023
Hoskinson would hold journalists financially responsible for inaccuracies
What if journalists were paid to write an article? What if people were financially incentivized to downgrade an article? And what if Cardano would benefit from all of this? Welcome to Hoskinson’s version of journalism.
“When someone publishes something, they have to pay a certain amount along with it.” – the head of Cardano explained in his 12-minute live login posted on Twitter. “If it turns out that what they wrote is not true or inaccurate, they can actually lose the money they committed.”
It would be difficult to find a journalist who would be willing to work in the system described by Hoskinson. Nowadays, it is very difficult to filter the truth when it is determined by the easily manipulated online mood, moreover, in a system where billionaires and giant companies maintain their influence with money.
By the way, another important point of Hoskinson’s plan is that the 100 largest blockchains might write whatever they want regarding themselves. There is not much to say regarding this, but it is interesting that journalists would be financially punished for each and every inaccuracy, while blockchains would be able to write whatever they want regarding themselves without verification.
Can Hoskinson afford to buy CoinDesk?
Some say the head of Cardano is considering buying CoinDesk because he feels he has been wronged by the company and perhaps by other news outlets.
“As you know, we [a Cardano] we have become victims of the media – some who didn’t take the time to really investigate the situation and dig deep into things, and some who were simply out to slander.”
Another important question is whether Hoskinson might buy CoinDesk at all. One of Forbes 2018 article estimated the Cardano founder’s net worth at around $500-600 million. This number may still be roughly the same now, as Cardano is worth regarding the same today as it was then.
That’s a lot of money, but it’s highly unlikely that Hoskinson would sell his cryptocurrencies to have enough cash to buy CoinDesk. It’s probably not worth the risk to him. However, a purchase with the help of outside investors would make things easier, similar to how Elon Musk enlisted the help of Larry Ellison, the Saudi royal family and Changpeng Zhao to buy Twitter.
However, it is certain that none of Hoskinson’s suggestions would lead journalism in a better direction, and it is also highly unlikely that he is seriously thinking regarding buying CoinDesk. But Hoskinson needs to let us all know that he might afford that if he really wanted to.
