Thank You

Hi, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Today is January 18th, 2023. It's hard to believe that already 18 days have passed in the year. I've been sick for two weeks and am almost fully recovered now. I got COVID, and it was horrible—definitely the worst time I've had it.

I think this is number three or four. Anyway, I want to make a brief video now that I'm back in the office and feeling good. I receive gifts from time to time, and when I get them with a note, especially when they’re very thoughtful, I like to make a video about it. I received a painting from a gentleman named Julius over in Finland, and I wanted to show it off. Take a look at that!

You’ll actually notice that this is Mr. Bones right here. I wanted to read off the letter real quickly because I thought it was really cool: "Dear Charles, here’s a late Christmas present for you all the way from Finland. Thank you for inspiring us to make our music and art. Without you, there would be no Cardano community, and we find such joy being part of it every day.

We want to thank you for giving us a moment of your time in Luzon. It was quite rare to meet your heroes and find them even greater in real life. I was impressed by how kind you were to us, despite the fact that you must be extremely busy all the time. The painting was inspired by you and also a song we wrote for you called 'Crypto Cowboys.' We’re planning on minting the song as an NFT collection with the picture of the painting as the cover art.

We’d love to send you the song as an NFT too once we mint it. The song is also part of our album that consists of five songs and takes the listener on a journey through the Cardano ecosystem. Please send us your Cardano address if you’d like us to send you the song. We hope you enjoy your Christmas gift. We took our time to send the painting to make sure it had properly dried.

We also included Mr. Bones in the painting to commemorate him. May the New Year 2023 bring you happiness, prosperity, and good health. With love, the Mean Millionaires." They included their Twitter handle and all the other details.

I love getting letters like this; I really do. We have one of the best, probably the best, crypto communities in the entire world. It’s what has always made Cardano so incredibly special. There are people everywhere. In this case, the painting came from Finland, but when we did some audits, we found people in over 146 countries that we know of who are in the Cardano ecosystem, doing various things.

NFTs have been the largest surprise area of growth over the last two years in Cardano, but by no means is it the only part of Cardano's growth. In fact, we have a huge amount of DeFi that’s nestling and brewing, and I’d like to believe we can upgrade all of it to real DeFi. That’s DeFi with standards, certification, identity, metadata, governance, and regulation. So good luck with that. It’s a lot of work to figure all those parts out, but in any event, I have no doubt we’ll get there because we’re doing it together.

That’s what’s so amazing about the last seven years. Cardano went from just an idea on a chalkboard in Japan to this large global movement—not because of me; I just kind of pushed it a little bit. It’s because of all of you. You’re the ones who made it so special and unique, from naming the lobster on the mic to all this amazing, beautiful artwork that has certainly made my life a lot better. I hope it’s also made your lives a lot better.

So, I just wanted to read off the note, show you guys that painting, and thank you, Julius, for sending this to me. I really do hope that all of you building on Cardano find similar success and passion. Until next time, thank you so much, and have a wonderful day. Cheers!