Charles Hoskinson has used a surprise live AMA from Wyoming to outline a planned shift in Cardano community activity from X to Discord, while also updating holders on Midnight, RealFi, governance, agentic products, and earlier plans involving SpaceX.
The Cardano founder described the transition as a response to the difficulty of maintaining productive discussions on X, where he said community conversations have become harder to manage due to repeated allegations, hostile engagement, and low-quality debate. Rather than continuing to focus on public disputes, Hoskinson said the next step is to move Cardano’s main community dialogue into a moderated Discord environment.
The plan follows the growth of the Midnight Discord, which Hoskinson said expanded from about 11,000 users to 49,000 users over the past six months. That represents an increase of roughly 345%, giving the Cardano team a working example of how a more structured community space can support product updates, questions, and discussion without the same level of open-platform noise.
Cardano Community Set for Discord Shift
Hoskinson said the Cardano team will begin forming a working group after his return to Colorado, with community members and ecosystem participants expected to help design the new Discord structure. He mentioned discussions with several community figures, including people linked to Hosky, as part of the early planning process.
The aim is to build well-moderated channels where users, developers, and key opinion leaders can communicate in a more organized way. Hoskinson said the Midnight Discord model showed that stronger moderation can create a more positive environment while reducing repetitive attacks and low-value disputes.
The migration does not mean Cardano activity will stop on X immediately, but it signals that formal community engagement may become more centered on Discord. Hoskinson said livestreams may still happen on X, while AMA activity and deeper community interaction could move to Discord over time.
The shift comes after a difficult first half of the year for Cardano, according to Hoskinson. He said the team expected market pressure and public drama, but described the period as more difficult than anticipated. Even so, he framed the current phase as a move back toward building, product delivery, and more direct community coordination.
Midnight, RealFi and Cardano Products Advance
Hoskinson also gave several product updates during the AMA. He said RealFi is making progress, with John O’Connor stepping into the RealFi Foundation. He also pointed to Hogan, described as a Bitcoin DeFi initiative, as another project nearing release.
Midnight remained a major focus of the update. Hoskinson said the privacy-focused network has stayed on schedule with major releases every three months. He described earlier phases as focused on liquidity and the guarded mainnet, while the next phase will involve guards coming down, contract composition turning on, and recursion expected in Q3.
He also discussed Midnight City, an agent-based digital environment tied to Midnight. The project is expected to include personality structures for digital agents, including systems inspired by Enneagram and Myers-Briggs-style testing. Hoskinson said users will be able to create agents with unique traits as the world develops.
Leo’s testnet was also mentioned, with June 23 cited as the expected date. Hoskinson said the team is looking forward to testing activity around the launch.
Midnight Passport will replace Lace Passport, according to Hoskinson, because of stronger privacy and selective disclosure features. He said Midnight Passport will be used across product lines and will support identity use cases beyond basic verification.
Hoskinson also said Dust, Midnight’s utility resource, will be used to power applications once more community dApps begin entering the network. He noted that the team has been working through stability, bugs, and feature delivery before broader consumption begins.
SpaceX Plan and Governance Debate Reenter Focus
Hoskinson also addressed earlier discussions with SpaceX, saying the Cardano and Midnight teams had explored a marketing idea involving a private mission that could have allowed community members to apply for astronaut positions. The concept involved Cardano and Midnight branding in space, with training through SpaceX and a mission tied to Vast, the space station company connected to Stellar founder Jed McCaleb.
The plan did not move forward because the cost could not be brought to a workable level. Hoskinson said the team had considered a larger media effort that could have attracted 50 million to 100 million regular viewers, but market conditions in 2024 and 2025 did not support the expected budget.
The Cardano founder noted the team remains in contact with the TapTools team, which, as we reported, shut down, and is reviewing possible paths for the product, including integration into Lace, Second Fire, or Midnight City.
Governance was another recurring subject. Hoskinson said Cardano’s governance system may need changes so commercial proposals with clear business value can be approved more effectively. He referenced rejected or difficult proposals, including those linked to Midnight and Strike, and argued that community-backed ventures could return value to ADA holders when structured properly.
He compared the concept with Ethereum’s DeFi economy, saying that if the Ethereum Foundation earned 5% of protocol revenue from Ethereum’s DeFi layer, it could generate about $390 million a year. The point was used to explain why ecosystem treasury participation in commercial ventures may deserve further discussion.
Hoskinson also addressed criticism and allegations around past matters, including the ADA voucher issue. He said a completed audit led to full exoneration and that 99.7% of buyers received what they were owed, while the remaining 0.3% are set to receive refunds.
