Bitcoin Foundation Challenges - Bankruptcy and the Road to Nowhere

The Bitcoin Foundation, whose goal was to “standardize, protect, and promote the use of Bitcoin cryptographic tools for the benefit of users around the world,” is actually on the verge of bankruptcy. This was written on the organization’s forum by one of the relatively recently elected members, Olivier Jansens.

Jansens writes that, in fact, the money ran out in November. He complains about the complete lack of transparency in the work, the inability of the fund to finance key developers, the thoughtless waste of money and clumsy management, and the fact that 90% of the employees have already been fired.

In particular, he notes:

The Bitcoin Foundation hates transparency. If they worked transparently, then everyone would know that they ran out of money. It seems to me that members of the fund should know about this situation, what do you think? Members have the right to know that the current management of the fund is not telling them the truth, and that their leadership has led the fund to bankruptcy. But instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they are trying to find a new executive director who would come up with a magical plan to overcome the crisis. The irony is that transparent working methods, if they were used from the very beginning, would not have allowed this situation to arise in principle.

The fund does not officially represent Bitcoin, but was created with the aim of developing and promoting cryptocurrency. It was funded by companies interested in using bitcoins. In 2013, judging by their financial statements, the fund received donations of $ 4.7 million .

Since 2012, when the foundation was founded, only one Gavin Andresen remains on the board. Of the remaining original board members, Charlie Shrem went to jail on charges of aiding money laundering on Silk Road, Mark Karpeles was responsible for the collapse of the largest MtGox exchange, and Roger Ver fled to the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Jansens already expressed his intentionleave the fund when a year ago one of the board members became involved in a scandal involving sexual harassment (although he was not charged as a result). However, he remained in the fund in order to try to carry out reforms. He believes that the fund needs to stop wasting efforts on gaining power and engage in the promotion of bitcoins among business owners and ordinary people.