Although the crypto market volatility has kept the community on edge, tensions rose in the Cardano stake pool community. This was witnessed in a long thread by the Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson, who apologized to the community for recurring claims of the broken Cardano testnet.
On Sunday, Hoskinson took to his Twitter to acknowledge the crucial role played by the stake pool community and certain inefficiencies in the Cardano infrastructure. Calling the SPO community the “backbone” of Cardano, Hoskinson continued,
This was a follow-up to Hoskinson’s earlier statements to critics claiming there was a bug in the Vasil hard fork version 1.35.2. At the time, Hoskinson responded, calling the claims “bizarre and alarming.”
“It’s bizarre and alarmist seeing these videos floating around that things are being rushed with 1.35.3. The code in question has been thoroughly tested for months by everyone including SPOs. The code that was an issue on the testnet has been removed.”
The founder of Cardano got involved in a back and forth with the fraction of the community who claimed IOHK, Cardano’s parent company, had failed to carry the SPOs along and said respinning the testnet would be a waste of time. Although Hoskinson apologized, he noted that the community has rallied and worked overtime over the years to balance the user experience with good security and fast delivery.
Cardano’s community-based effort too late?
Hoskinson spoke about their fragmented approach to community building and a lack of a community-based organization. Nevertheless, Cardano’s founder noted that despite addressing these issues, it would take time.
The overworked founder tended an apology for his reaction to the claim of a broken testnet in this entire Twitter thread, as he stated,
“Over the last 3 days, I could have personally chosen a different approach. I regret that I didn’t and I’m sorry. Ultimately, the people who know me know exactly where I’m coming from. I hate seeing these and have personal experience in the damage they cause”
He further added along the family aspect of the community who chose to be a part of Cardano. As Vasil comes in with loads of changes for the ecosystem, the founder stated,
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re all members of a family and chose to be here. I feel like I’ve let you down and for that I’m sorry. Vasil is the last hard fork of an Era and many things are changing after it. New governance processes, more inclusive structures”
As Vasil marks the last hard fork of an era, the next generation will kick off with a “new governance process, more inclusive structures, more useful code, faster development, more parallel efforts, and eventually Cardano realizing the promise and potential of its community towards giving the world economic identity,” per Hoskinson.
Strong community support has proven crucial for new and old projects. Although the arguments between community members and the founder seem harsh, they were part of the community discussions. It can be seen as a part of an independent group that questioned the founders and wanted to know exactly what was going on. It was no surprise that Hoskinson returned to apologize, as the ecosystem now needs the community’s support more than ever.