Following a disagreement over the future of the advocacy group of the Bitcoin Foundation, board members Jim Harper and Olivier Janssens announced their resignation.In a statement, the vice chairman and the chief executive officer of BTCC Bobby Lee stated, “Brock, Elizabeth Ploshay, Meyer Malka (via email vote) and I voted to continue support of the organization and to move forward. Jim Harper and Olivier Janssens voted to shut down the organization.When casting his vote, Olivier noted that he supports the idea of continuing but not as is without a more a detailed plan.Given the difference of opinion, I respectfully requested the resignation of Jim and Olivier so that the remaining board members are unified in a plan to stay and improve the organization.
Jim agreed to resign and the board accepted.We wished him well in future endeavors. After some further discussion with Olivier, who indicated that he support a plan but wanted to have a plan in place before supporting the organization, I made the motion the board remove Olivier from his seat.This motion was seconded and voted affirmatively by me, Brock, Elizabeth and Meyer. We wish Olivier the best in the future and we appreciate the efforts by both Olivier and Jim.”The dismissals follow the publication of meeting minutes from the 20th October that suggested the Bitcoin Foundation has only enough funding to continue until March 2016, and that recent conference efforts had drawn little revenue.
The board had a discussion on the prospect of fundraising to continue efforts and they were given tasks to collect fund from the community as part of the effort.Bruce Fenton, the director of Bitcoin Foundation stated, “It’s key for the vision of the board to align, so while it would be ideal if the opinions coincided, ultimately it will hopefully place the foundation in a stronger position with a board that is aligned.”On May 2015, after Bruce Fenton became the director of Bitcoin Foundation, he suggested removing Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, as a founding member.Fenton believes that Nakamoto’s inclusion is “not accurate”, arguing that he or she was never involved in the creation of the organization.Olivier Janssens revealed that he has many times found himself at odds with more distinguished members of the organization over his outspoken demeanor.
Janssens explained, “I was a thorn in the eye of the Foundation since the beginning, and they waited for the right time to remove me. The truth is that the foundation is pretty much dead.They will try to keep it going just for the name and ego, but they have no support left with the community.”According to Harper, who has served the organization for many years stated that the Bitcoin Foundation “lacks vision”.
He stated, “The foundation has not had a vision. I think it was poorly organized, and in hindsight, it was erratic. Not enough has changed. But, I think the community still needs a good advocacy group”.
