Founding and IOG organization

Founding and IOG organization

The project to create Cardano was initiated by a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs concentrated in Asia at the end of 2014. Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood founded Input Output (initially, IOHK) to design and implement Cardano. In addition, the Cardano Foundation was set up to oversee and supervise the development of Cardano and to act as an advocate for its users. The foundation is based in Switzerland. A third entity, Emurgo, was created to pursue commercial activities on behalf of the ecosystem and community. The three entities have separate ownerships and leadership.

The Cardano blockchain and ada, its founding native cryptocurrency, was launched in 2017 and established itself as one of the leading blockchains.

 IOHK has evolved into Input Output Global, Inc. (IOG) with Charles Hoskinson as Chief Executive Officer. IOG is incorporated in the state of Wyoming, USA.

The team behind Cardano

As the blockchain engineering and research company that is participating, along with the Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, and other third parties, in developing the core Cardano platform, IOG has assembled a multi-talented global team of more than 600 people. This includes computer scientists, academic researchers, software engineers, product specialists, and technical architects. 

With over 600 staff (as of May 2022), IOG is an ever-expanding constellation for the development of decentralized applications, identity solutions, wallets, and an eclectic and thematically diversified range of decentralized applications for blockchain.