Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson will meet with Argentina President Javier Milei in October to discuss the cryptocurrency economy.
Hoskinson is heading to Tech Forum Argentina to discuss the future of blockchain in a conversation with the Argentine president planned for Oct. 19, the Cardano founder told Cointelegraph in an interview.
In the upcoming meeting, Hoskinson expects to discuss blockchain’s potential to transform global economic, political and social systems.
He said he would also raise questions about the values and needs of Argentina in the context of technology, whether the country should create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and what kind of partners it has to rebuild the economy.
“We’ve had many discussions with his administration, and I’m going to meet him probably on the 19th, but at some point, if not then within that time frame, we’ve been discussing with people that work with him and forum what blockchain’s future is going to look like,” Hoskinson said. He added:
“It’s not a Cardano only conversation, there’s a whole family of technologies.”
Hoskinson refers to Argentina’s president as a “philosophical Austrian”
In an interview with Cointelegraph, the Cardano founder referred to Milei as an “Austrian,” describing the president as an “actual philosophical Austrian.”
He implied that Milei’s ideas align with some of the crypto principles as the president “wants to get rid of government-controlled money” and “likes private institutions and free markets.” Hoskinson opined the following:
“He does believe in what Ludwig von Mises believes and Murray Rothbard, and so philosophically, politically, he’s much more aligned with the ethos of the cryptocurrency industry.”
Cardano has “real strong roots” in Argentina
Hoskinson’s upcoming meeting with the Argentine president builds on Cardano’s deep ties and presence in the country.
Argentina has welcomed Cardano “with open arms,” highlighting multiple cooperation efforts in the country. In June 2024, the Cardano Foundation inked another partnership with Argentina to boost local blockchain adoption.
Additionally, when Hoskinson co-founded Cardano in 2015, AtixLabs, one of Cardano’s earliest development companies, came from Argentina, according to the Cardano Newsletter.
“Cardano has been in Argentina for a long time,” Hoskinson said in the interview, adding that the network has “real strong roots” there.
He also mentioned that Bitcoin (BTC) has had a long presence in Argentina as well. “One of the very first major crypto companies was BitPay, and they actually developed their wallet Copay down in Argentina, like in 2012 or something like that,” Hoskinson said.
Milei, who is widely known as a proponent of cryptocurrencies, has also publicly endorsed Cardano on his X page, reposting a Cardano-themed post by Dario Epstein in May 2024. Milei has also reposted tweets directly from Hoskinson.
Milei also confirmed that he’s going to the Tech Forum Argentina in an X repost on Sept. 17.
Cardano went through a governance upgrade into Voltaire in early September
The news comes amid the Cardano blockchain succeeding on its path to enter Voltaire, the final era of Cardano’s roadmap that is focused on decentralized governance.
On Sept. 1, Cardano went through Chang, the first hard fork in the Voltaire era. This fork introduced community-run governance by enabling onchain community consensus.
Related: Argentina adds Ethereum to Buenos Aires high school curriculum
Voltaire’s onchain voting features are set to be ratified by Cardano (ADA) holders in the final Cardano Constitution, which is expected to be finalized and ratified in December.
While Hoskinson would personally advocate for a deflationary monetary policy and for the treasury not to burn tokens in any circumstance, he welcomes debate in the community. He stated:
“The whole point of an onchain government is to invite controversy. It’s an effective and efficient system if it can handle a plurality of ideas, some insane and some reasonable, and converge to good ideas on an ongoing basis.”
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Additional reporting by Andrew Fenton.