In this episode of Overnight Success, I sit down with Sheldon Hunt, a founding member of EMURGO—one of Cardano’s original entities. We unpack the philosophical and technical rifts between Ethereum and Cardano, trace the evolution from Bitcoin to Ethereum to Cardano, and dive deep into what true decentralization really looks like—especially in Cardano’s approach to governance.
If you’ve ever wondered:
What really happened when Vitalik pitched Ethereum in Hong Kong
What it takes for blockchains to handle trillions on-chain
Why scarcity matters (and why Ethereum doesn’t have it)
—then this episode is a must-listen.
Episode Highlights with Timestamps
[00:00] – Introduction: Who is Sheldon Hunt & EMURGO’s role in Cardano
[00:42] – Vitalik’s original Ethereum pitch in Hong Kong
[01:53] – Scarcity wars: Why Cardano caps supply and Ethereum doesn’t
[02:40] – Ethereum’s nonprofit roots vs. Charles Hoskinson’s business-first vision
[03:30] – Cardano’s community-first design and token distribution
[04:25] – Intersect and the shift to decentralized governance
[05:20] – The risks of handing over $30B in infrastructure to “the mob”
[06:10] – Balancing privacy and mass adoption: Midnight chain + real-world use cases
[07:25] – Why Cardano has never gone down (and why it matters)
[08:20] – Final thoughts: Security, uptime, and building for trillions on-chain
About Our Guest
Sheldon Hunt was part of the founding team at EMURGO—one of Cardano’s three core entities alongside IOG and the Cardano Foundation. Today, he’s building Sundial Protocol, a Layer 2 solution bringing programmability to Bitcoin by bridging it with Cardano. The focus: secure, decentralized, cross-chain interoperability between BTC and ADA.
Resources Mentioned:
Cardano [https://cardano.org/]
Sundial Protocol [https://www.sundialprotocol.com/]
EMURGO Website [https://www.emurgo.io/]
Cardano Foundation [https://cardanofoundation.org/]
Midnight Privacy Chain [https://midnight.network/]
Intersect: Cardano’s Member-Based Org [https://www.intersectmbo.org/]