coffee, keyboard Bitcoin Foundation board members Jim Harper and Olivier Janssens have resigned and been removed from the trade organization, respectively, following a disagreement over the future of the advocacy group.
At an 11am EST meeting today, long-standing disagreements among Bitcoin Foundation board members came to a head over a vote on whether the organization should be disbanded. Both Harper and Janssens voted to shut down the foundation.
In a statement , Bitcoin Foundation vice chairman and BTCC CEO Bobby Lee said the organization accepted the resignation of Jim Harper following the vote, a decision Harper confirmed to CoinDesk calling it "non-acrimonious".
More contentious was a vote to remove long-controversial board member Olivier Janssens initiated by Lee. The vote was seconded by chairman Brock Pierce as well as remaining board members Elizabeth McCauley and Micky "Meyer" Malka, whose vote was given by proxy.
In statements, Janssens indicated that he expressed his willingness for the foundation to continue, provided it had a plan and a direction for its future, objections shared by Harper.
"They wanted everyone to start raising money, so they could come up with a plan. I said I’m not comfortable to raise money UNTIL we have a plan," Janssens wrote in a Reddit post.
The dismissals by the board members follow the publication of meeting minutes from 20th October which suggested the Bitcoin Foundation has only enough funding to continue until next March , and that recent conference efforts had drawn little revenue.
According to the minutes , the board discussed the prospect of fundraising to continue efforts, and that board members were to be tasked with collecting money from the community as part of the effort.In comments to CoinDesk, Bitcoin Foundation director Bruce Fenton, praised both departing members, but said he feels the organization will now be better positioned for success: "It’s key […]
