Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has opposed burning the blockchain network’s more than 1.5 billion ADA treasury tokens, which are worth about $500 million.
On September 5, Hoskinson said on social media after on
Burning these assets, Hoskinson argued, would amount to theft from Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and ADA holders. He stated:
“The entire treasury comes from building blocks of people and economic activity. You are essentially stealing from every SPO and ADA holder when you burn the treasury.”
Hoskinson’s comments come amid growing calls to burn the 1.5 billion ADA tokens in the treasury following the recent integration of decentralized governance on Cardano.
On September 1, Cardano completed the first phase of its Chang hard fork, marking a major step toward full self-government. This move positioned Cardano as the first layer 1 blockchain to implement a token-based governance system.
With this development, the Cardano community has begun exploring ways to leverage its new governing powers. A community member, Big Pey, recently asked for input on the possible burning of government bonds, post:
“Now that Cardano has full on-chain governance. There is 1.5 billion ADA in the treasury. The ADA community could vote to burn the entire ADA. Would you vote to burn the entire ADA? If not, what do you think we should spend the money on?
The proposal has generated mixed reactions. Some see burning the tokens as a positive move that would greatly benefit ADA’s price, while others warn of potential harm from such moves.
Jaromír Tesař, one of the network’s decentralized representatives (DReps), stated that burning the assets would be a “terrible mistake.” He suggested the money could be better used to support Cardano’s development.
He said:
“We could launch several more Catalyst Funds, use ADA for liquidity in DeFi, accelerate the development of scalability technologies, fund the deployment of USDC and USDT on Cardano, and even invest in marketing.”