South Africa’s Llew Claasen was appointed as the new Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation because they think he has the skill that is needed now to move the Foundation forward. He said that there is an amazing opportunity for the organization to help the Bitcoin ecosystem. In this interview, he sheds light on his appointment and the organisation he leads.
CoinTelegraph: Did your appointment as the executive director of Bitcoin Foundation come as a surprise?
Llew Claasen : Yes! I was in Italy on vacation at the time that the Board approved my appointment and within days I was on a plane to Toronto for the announcement. I had been discussing the position with the Board for a few weeks before that, following the decision of Bruce Fenton to step down as the Executive Director of the Foundation.
CT: I believe your focus would be on improving Bitcoin adoption and use?
LC: We believe that the most important uses of Bitcoin are as a medium of exchange and as a store of value and this is where we will focus our advocacy programs. As a technology, we’re still firmly in early adopter territory, so our programs will be focused on outreach for engineers, especially software engineers. Acceleration of Bitcoin adoption CT: It takes several qualities to steer the wheel of a global industry group that is focused on Bitcoin with a variety of corporate members, individuals and international chapters. What factors or skills would you rely on to see you through the tasks ahead?
LC : Running a non-profit foundation for an open source project that was founded on a philosophy of privacy, decentralized trust and distributed effort is certainly going to be a challenge. There is no obvious precedent for such an organizational structure. […]
