Interview With Charles Hoskinson and Shahaf Bar-Geffen, CEO of the COTI Blockchain Network

In this Blockster podcast, we sat down with two major names in the industry. Charles Hoskinson is the CEO of IOHK and Shahaf Bar-Geffen is the CEO of COTI. Both Charles and Shahaf have extensive experience in the blockchain industry and are leading figures within their respective companies. In this interview, they share their insights into the current state of the blockchain industry and their vision for its future.

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From Early Blockchain Days To Venture Ecosystem

The discussion starts off with Charles talking about his early involvement in the blockchain industry going back to the Bitcoin days. He talks about the evolution of blockchain technology and how friendly the environment was with Ethereum founders getting together innovating and providing the market with what Bitcoin couldn't, programmable cryptocurrency.

Since then, he's started Input Output where a more research- based approach could take place in the industry. By working with engineers from a scientific and first-principles approach, Charles believes it has allowed them to build more robust systems and tackle a range of problems that are yet to be solved in the industry.

This led to the creation of Cardano, which Charles is well known for. However, he shares that he's progressing into his next stage of entrepreneurism, which is the creation of a venture studio. This new venture will focus on building up companies from the ground up and fostering innovation in a variety of industries.
"We incubate and build really cool ideas and we've gone from one world view to many world views."

Charles Hoskinson
Charles continues by explaining that it has now come full circle as Bitcoin supports Segwit and Taproot, which makes the leading cryptocurrency programmable. To finish up his career summary thus far, Charles smiles as he reflects on how he grew fromstarted with a small group, to over a thousand active team members across his different ventures.

Shahaf and Charles Share Their Advice For Web3 Builders

It's no surprise that ideologies can cause tension within this industry and Charles' biggest lesson so far is to not take things personally. We must remember that everyone has their own opinions and ideas, but it's important to focus on the bigger picture and push for progress in the industry as a whole. This perspective is echoed by fellow Web3 builder, Shahaf, who shares that it's necessary to detach from the noise and focus on the goal of creating decentralized systems that empower individuals.

As the CEO of COTI (Currency Of The Internet), Shahaf Bar-Geffen has been a key player in the world of Web3. COTI is a blockchain-based payment platform that enables fast, easy and secure payments for all types of transactions. With years of experience in the industry, Shahaf has learned valuable lessons that he shares with aspiring Web3 builders.
"Stay in the game, it's the most important thing."

Shahaf Bar-Geffen
One crucial piece of advice he shares for Web3 builders is to not cave in to cycles and criticisms. He builds on Charles' perspective of not taking things personally. As a leader and innovator, he's experienced first hand how some in the industry can be quick to criticize and tear down new ideas. However, he believes if you strive to be above average, overtime you can expect to receive above exceptional results as long as you don't quit on yourself and the industry as a whole.

Regulations and Framework Creation For The Progression of The Blockchain Industry

The United States of America is filled with talented individuals striving for the progression of the blockchain industry. However, with such a rapidly evolving field, it's important to establish regulations and frameworks to guide this progression in a positive direction. Charles passionately explains that if the U.S government fails to establish clear frameworks for business' in the industry to follow, the country simply will not become competitive in the broader market. Shahaf nods, confirming his struggles to grow COTI with the current administration.
"The industry is going to grow to a 10-20 trillion dollar industry, and the United States have been kind of stuck in many respects."

Charles Hoskinson
Despite the past few years' stagnation in terms of regulatory progress, there is still hope for the future. Charles optimistically expresses how Trump's favorable perspective on the blockchain industry will lead to positive growth and development. However, the first 6-9 months will be crucial for advisors and industry leaders to establish clear regulatory frameworks and guidelines for businesses to follow. Overall, it's a great opportunity for entrepreneurs like Shahaf to be proactive and involved in shaping the future of the industry.

Speaking of Donald Trump, Charles commented: "He's going to appoint a crypto Czar, he's going to work with the senate and congress, he's going to appoint a pro-crypto SEC chair."

Addressing The BTC Maxis (+ Future Predictions)

We alluded to how ideologies can often cause strife within the industry and as a builder of many crypto projects that aren't Bitcoin related, Charles decided it was fair to defend his opinion and stance on altcoins. He expresses how the attacks against other projects within the industry are as dangerous as they advise the SEC that everything that isn't Bitcoin is a problem for society.

Despite saying earlier to not take things personally, this attack made Charles quite angry. Charles believes it's ridiculous to label all DeFi and non-BTC projects a scam, as there are many legitimate use cases and innovations being created every day. Bitcoin simply can't run certain applications that empower individuals but maximalists often shy away from Bitcoin's limited capabilities and push the narrative that Bitcoin is the only "real" cryptocurrency. Charles argues that this mentality limits innovation and progress within the industry.
"What if I wanted to use a decentralized exchange because I was blacklisted for being born in the wrong country?"

Charles Hoskinson
Although this anger was a strategic approach that Charles used to get his point across, he credits the builders of Taproot for making Bitcoin more programmable. It's not quite at the capabilities of Ethereum or Cardano but it is enough for it to communicate with other cryptocurrencies in a safe manner. This means in 2025, other crypto projects can be a DeFi layer on top of Bitcoin. In Cardano's case, users can pay their transaction fees in Bitcoin.
"This is the single greatest market opportunity in the history of cryptocurrency."

Charles Hoskinson
When measuring the market cap of Bitcoin, it's typically on average 3-4 times the market share of Ethereum and Solana combined. As Bitcoin opens up and communicates/connects to other established DeFi projects, Charles expresses how a flood of market value from Bitcoin could flow into other DeFi projects. This would ultimately benefit the entire industry as a whole, creating a more diverse and resilient ecosystem.

Charles Hoskinson closes this segment with optimism regarding the collapse of maximalism as the industry begins working collaboratively.

Private vs Public Approach To Web3 Applications

As the conversation continued, the two thought leaders began sharing the reasons why ZK-Proofs as a Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) is receiving so much attention. Charles explains that the most significant pain point of public blockchains is their inability to guarantee privacy. Although everything on the blockchain can be seen and monitored, ZK-Proofs allow for selective disclosure of information. This allows for private transactions, which are essential to a financial system's compliance and security.
"Privacy is one of those things that when you see it, you can't un-see it."

Shahaf Bar-Geffen
Shahaf emphasized the importance of defining privacy as it often gets confused with anonymity. Privacy is the right to have selective disclosure of what you want to share with the public and what you don't. It's a basic right for freedom. It's critical for Web3 because we will never have decentralized systems if everything is publicly available.

No serious institution or business will come on chain if private details are shown to everyone on the blockchain. It's not about hiding illegal activities (although that could be a motive), competitive advantages and respect to personal information could be some reasons for selective disclosure.

It's predicted that the demand for privacy-enhancing technologies will only continue to grow as society becomes more aware of the value and need for privacy. Even governments that adopt blockchain technology would require privacy for various reasons. From nation state security reasons to personal data protection, ZK-Proofs can provide a solution for all.

With that being said, COTI is one of the leading companies in developing a privacy-focused payment solution for governments and enterprises. This positions Shahaf Bar-Geffen and COTI to become among the pioneers in shaping the future of decentralized finance and privacy on blockchain.

Understanding 'Midnight' From Charles Hoskinson

Charles believes that privacy is the final mile or missing piece in the blockchain space. Bitcoin was the first generation of decentralization where middlemen were removed and trust was established through cryptography.

Ethereum introduced smart contracts, allowing for the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) which increased the use case of blockchain technology. However, scalability was missing from this second generation platform. Layer-2 solutions like sidechains were proposed to solve the scalability issue, but once again privacy was left out.

According to Hoskinson, the final generation of blockchain technology will be the integration of privacy solutions through zero-knowledge proofs, making platforms like Ethereum more private and scalable. This is essential for the mass adoption of blockchain technology.

He also shares that in this industry, there are two main sides. The public side and the private side. Imagine a business with a polished marketing campaign designed to gain sales. That would be the public side. The money in their cash register would be private, for obvious security reasons. Governments may choose to publicly disclose their military recruitment efforts but classified contingencies would be private, again for obvious reasons.
"Privacy is contextual, privacy needs an identity at the same time."

Charles Hoskinson
After clearly outlining the issue that is privacy, Charles brings up an interesting point. Privacy depends on who is able to see a certain data set or information. For example, HR may have access to employee history, as do the C-Suite but the janitor does not. This is where identity comes into play. This is known as 'Selective Disclosure' as Charles puts it and the ability to do this on the blockchain would be revolutionary.

To emphasize the impact of a successful privacy approach for the blockchain industry, Charles shares that a $20 trillion industry that is the RWA (Real World Asset) space is excluded from blockchain technology due to privacy concerns. By implementing privacy solutions, this market could be brought onto the blockchain and revolutionize traditional industries.
"Midnight is a solution where we created the first meta-chain and the basic idea is that we created a protocol called Minotaur that allows us to have multi-resource consensus."

Charles Hoskinson
Midnight is creating a system where maintenance can be accomplished by multiple cryptocurrencies. This bridges all the cryptocurrencies together which makes it look like a layer-2 to everybody. Rather than observing a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain (Which reduces privacy) Midnight shields the specific blockchain that is being used. This adds a layer of privacy as the specific blockchain being used is not visible to everyone.

Final Thoughts

It's a fascinating time to be a Blockster as Charles Hoskinson and Shahaf Bar-Geffen express a transition into a new era of Web3. From personal experiences to talking points about the revolutionary age of decentralization, this interview provided insight into the minds of two exceptional leaders in the blockchain space.

Whether you agree or disagree with their opinions, it's clear that both Charles and Shahaf are passionate about driving innovation and we can't wait to see what's to come for these two trailblazers and the industry as a whole.