Despite still being in its nascent phase, the crypto industry is no stranger to differing opinions from maximalists of different cryptocurrencies. This has often led to controversies and debates, some of which are more baseless than others. 

The most recent disputes in crypto have been sparked by the back-and-forth between Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, and some members of the XRP community. As a result, an old video has resurfaced of a journalist claiming to possess damaging information against Hoskinson. However, the Cardano founder has wasted no time in calling out the bluff.

The Resurfaced Video That Sparked Accusations

Mr. Huber, an XRP enthusiast recently shared a 2022 video featuring journalist Laura Shin on social media platform X. In the video, Shin discussed a number of topics that seemed like conspiracy theories, claiming that Hoskinson had allegedly paraded himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s anonymous creator. She also asserted that early members of the Ethereum team had a dossier of damning information they found on the internet on Hoskinson because of the distrust they had in him. 

DAMN! @IOHK_Charles crooked Ellbow Joe Lubin has a dossier with damning information on you? That’s why you call us conspiracy theorists? What does it say in there? Are you afraid? I guess the Ethereum guys are now conspiracy theorists too? pic.twitter.com/MMlDv0n8aD

— Mr. Huber (@Leerzeit) October 29, 2023

The video isn’t a new one as it failed to gain traction when it was made. In response to the recent tweet, the Cardano founder called out the bluff on why the Shin hadn’t published this so-called evidence. “She specializes in bottom feeder journalism,” Hoskinson said.

Lol, if there even was a dossier floating around somewhere, then I’d be confident that Shin would have published it verbatim. She specializes in bottom feeder journalism.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 29, 2023

Why Did The Video Resurface Now?

The video was posted by Mr.Huber as a clapback to Hoskinson’s recent claims about XRP. There have been rumors claiming that the SEC was corrupt in its dealings with Ethereum in the crypto’s early days. 

There was an email that showed that the SEC’s former director, Bill Hinman, may have been influenced by Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin before he gave his speech where he mentioned that ETH wasn’t a security. According to some members of the XRP community, this was unfair as it seems like Ripple and XRP were unfairly targeted by the SEC.

However, while speaking on the subject, Hoskinson mentioned that he doesn’t see anything wrong with the way the SEC dealt with the matter, leading to a clapback from XRP enthusiasts. 

It’s important to note that the Cardano co-founder was one of the earliest members of Ethereum’s founding team, so his ideas about the issue could be coming from a biased front. To make matters worse, Hoskinson recently made tweets mocking XRP enthusiasts. 

You know my favorite part about the holidays is kicking the XRP ETHGate Hornet’s nest with easy to meme sound bites connected to mostly ignored nuanced points. It’s like the first snow of winter.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 14, 2023

On the other hand, journalist Julia Shin has always been at loggerheads with Hoskinson in the past. In her book titled “Cryptopians,” she said Hoskinson never enrolled in a PhD program, contrary to his claims.

Hi Charles, speaking of fiction, do you want to address the discrepancies between your claims of dropping out of a PhD program and the schools’ assertions that you were enrolled as an undergrad? pic.twitter.com/gBULGEa6KK

— Laura Shin (@laurashin) March 6, 2022