While delivering a keynote speech at the current Paris Blockchain Week, IOG’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, spoke about the evolution of the cryptocurrency industry, the hurdles faced and overcome, and what’s next.

He believes the recently restarted Trade War by US President Trump, which this time aims at essentially every other country, proves why the world needs blockchain and decentralization now more than ever.

After giving a brief history lesson on why too much centralization could harm the world, Hoskinson said the recent developments on a global scale initiated by Trump and intensified by China, the EU, and other countries prove that too much power concentrated in a few people usually leads to deterioration. And, it’s generally the regular Joe who suffers the most.

Consequently, he believes decentralization, which he termed as his life’s work, and blockchain are needed more than ever. However, he noted that the current state of the blockchain industry faces inherent dangers that would require a new approach to be solved.

The US, with its new, more crypto-friendly government, will likely pass a stablecoin bill in the next few months and a broader digital asset market legislation by the end of the year. This, according to Hoskinson, would mean that tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft will join the industry, trying to reshape it in their own image, such as their wallets, features, and products.

The problem, he continued, is that they are still very centralized entities with armies of engineers that would regain all the control, instead of the regular users and developers. Consequently, he noted that the decentralized side of the blockchain industry needs to stand together and collaborate to avoid getting sucked in.

After admitting that IOG made a few tiny errors with Cardano, from which they had learnt valuable lessons, Hoskinson outlined what he believes should be the new agenda of the industry. He said the fourth generation of blockchain should merge Traditional Finance (TradFi) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) into just Finance (Fi).

“The Fourth Generation of Cryoptocurrencies is bridging TradFi and DeFi to make it Fi.”

LIVE from the #PBW2025 Master Stage@IOHK_Charles (CEO & Founder @InputOutputHK) pic.twitter.com/1N4pN8Yy9f

— Paris Blockchain Week (@ParisBlockWeek) April 9, 2025

He also hinted about working on a new project that will airdrop 37 million tokens to holders of BTC, ETH, ADA, and more, but more information of this would come in the following weeks.