Overview
Input Output is a research and engineering company that designs blockchain systems and builds them into products people can use. Founded by Charles Hoskinson in 2015, it works research-first: designs are written up as academic papers and reviewed by outside researchers. The company's stated reasoning is that experiments cannot cover the ways a system might fail, so it leans on mathematical proof instead1.
Cardano and Midnight both came out of that approach, and Input Output now runs as a venture studio, incubating ideas in house and spinning the successful ones out as separate companies with their own funding and boards2. Products that came through it include the Lace wallet, the Blockfrost data service for developers, and Project Catalyst, the community fund where ADA holders vote on which proposals get money3.
Key Features
- Peer-reviewed foundations. Input Output Research, the company's research arm, publishes its cryptography and distributed-systems work in academic venues, so the designs behind the products are open to outside scrutiny before anything ships1.
- A pipeline that ends in a real company. Ideas move through named stages, from a written vision to a prototype company to a launched one, with legal setup, staffing, and help raising capital supplied along the way4.
- Products, not only papers. The portfolio covers a wallet, a hosted data service for developers, a community funding program, and Djed, a token built to hold a steady value, with a design the company grounds on mathematical proofs3.
- Public code and an open audit archive. The company publishes public code through the input-output-hk GitHub organization5, and it keeps a separate public archive of the security audit reports outside firms have written about its software6.
- Engineering handed to specialist firms. Cardano's core protocol work moved to BlockPQR7, and platform engineering, testing, cryptography, and performance work moved to ICAN Group, with the same engineers moving alongside the code8.
What to Expect
Input Output presents itself as a company first and a product vendor second. Leadership is named and public, with Charles Hoskinson as CEO, Tamara Haasen as President, and Prof Aggelos Kiayias as Chief Scientist9. A research paper library, a newsroom, an office of policy, and job listings sit alongside the product pages.
For everyday readers, the practical entry points are the products rather than the company itself: a wallet, a stablecoin, a funding program you can vote in. Developers will care more about the public code and the papers behind it. Organizations with an idea of their own are the venture studio's audience, since that arm takes a concept through to an independent company4.
Input Output built Cardano but no longer does its day-to-day engineering in house. Several teams have moved out to independent firms, keeping the same people and the same code8, with Intersect approving each delivery milestone7. Input Output still sets the initiatives those teams work to7.
