In a recent revelation, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson shared that he nearly built the Cardano blockchain platform using the Clojure programming language.
In an X discussion, the Cardano founder recently shared a fascinating glimpse into the early decision-making process that led to the creation of Cardano. He revealed a pivotal moment: the choice between using Clojure, a dynamic and functional Lisp dialect, and Haskell, a statically typed functional programming language.
However, the decision ultimately leaned toward Haskell, influenced by the potential of Cloud Haskell and the hopes of leveraging Liquid Haskell and Agda.
I almost built Cardano with Clojure. We even discussed it with cognitech years ago. I chose haskell over clojure due to cloud haskell and also the hope of using liquid haskell/agda.
In hindsight, it would have been an amazing journey to have written everything in clojurescript…
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) May 30, 2024
Hoskinson revealed this in an X conversation with Ktorz, the Cardano Foundation technical director, as both demonstrated knowledge about various programming languages with a peculiar interest in Lisp, of which Clojure is a dialect.
Despite his initial interest in Clojure, Hoskinson revealed that he chose Haskell over Clojure due to Cloud Haskell and also the hope of using liquid Haskell/agda. Cloud Haskell offers a distributed computing framework that aligns well with the needs of a blockchain platform, while Liquid Haskell and Agda provide advanced capabilities for formal verification and ensuring code correctness.
In hindsight, Hoskinson reflects on the journey that could have been if Cardano had been built with Clojure. He imagines a Cardano built entirely on Clojure, utilizing ClojureScript for client-side development and ClojureSpec for specifications and testing.
Hoskinson’s reflections are not filled with regret but with a thoughtful consideration of what could have been. This route, he muses, could have been an “amazing journey.”
“Looking back, it would have been an amazing journey to write everything in Cardano using ClojureScript and ClojureSpec,” Hoskinson remarked.
