Bitcoin is going through a number of changes in order to gain legitimacy, such as embracing government regulations as opposed to fighting them and promoting bitcoin as a payments system rather than as a virtual currency, though this has been fiercely debated in the bitcoin community.
One of the latest additions to bitcoin is Brock Pierce, who was elected to the board of the Bitcoin Foundation. Pierce, who has had a controversial past, is apparently creating upheaval within the cryptocurrency community.
The present direction of the Bitcoin Foundation has caused a handful of members to publicly announce their resignation because they are displeased with how the board is operating and moving forward.
A number of members have participated in a discussion in the forum section of the Foundation’s website. Foundation annual member Patrick Alexander initiated a thread stating his formal resignation.
Alexander highlighted that the founding members have conducted themselves in an abhorrent manner and the group needs to impose “very high moral values and ethics.” He cited former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles and new board member Brock Pierce as reasons why the Foundation is moving in the wrong direction.
“This is not the direction this foundation needs to take. The foundation members need to emulate very high moral values and ethics in business and in personal dealings, especially as it involves money. So far, the track record of prominent Bitcoin Foundation members has been abysmal. I know that most foundation members are probably swell people and are not like this. However, the acts of a few, have overshadowed us all unfortunately,” he wrote.
“I no longer want to be associated with these people… It is my wish that as the Bitcoin Foundation lay in ashes, another organization can rise up from these ashes and take its proper place representing the great idea that is bitcoin.”
Other users have followed suit and have also announced their resignation from the board, including Olivier Janssens, who said that if the board wants to be taken seriously it would remove Pierce from it immediately – Pierce, a former child star, had been facing charges of intending to engage in sexual activity with a minor. He has denied all charges laid against him.
“There are active lawsuits on corporate fraud and child porn. This is NOT the type of associations you want to have for Bitcoin, especially not with the [mainstream media] trying to pull every stunt in the book,” explained Janssens.
Several other posts were in the same nature as Alexander and Janssens.
Stephen Sunderlin wrote: “Effective immediately I would like to terminate my corporate sponsorship of the Bitcoin Foundation. Please remove my logo and company name from The Bitcoin Foundation website and any of the Bitcoin Foundation materials.”
Patrick Levell stated: “Since my membership expires in less than two weeks, I will show my support by saying that I have no intention to renew my membership … I will be removing any and all association with the Bitcoin Foundation from my online identities ASAP.”
Michael Goldstein said: “I would like to terminate my membership immediately. Please remove my name from the website.”
It appears a lot of people who are disgruntled with the Bitcoin Foundation are headed to the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute, an organization described as one focusing on promotion and development rather than politics. This is the mission statement from the newest bitcoin entity:
“The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute is eager to share with the world the best ideas past, present, and future in cryptography, distributed networks, economic freedom, and freedom of information. We are dedicated to curating the best primary source literature that challenge the status quo through technological innovation.”
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