With three separate entities running Cardano, some conflicts and disagreements were bound to arise at some point. And it has, with Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson accusing the Cardano Foundation of being a stumbling block towards the progress of the project. In an open letter and later a video interview, Hoskinson has accused the foundation chairman, Michael Parsons of laxity, nepotism and misappropriation of funds. He has further appealed to the Cardano community to sign a petition that seeks to oust him from office.
Shape Up Or Ship Out
Seeking to decentralize the administration of Cardano, the project was put under three autonomous organizations. Hoskinson-led IOHK was charged with the software development, Emurgo was charged with the incubation of ventures developed on Cardano’s infrastructure while the Cardano Foundation was to keep an eye on the ecosystem. It hasn’t gone to plan however, Hokinson revealed in an open letter published recently.
The letter accused Parsons of having a stranglehold on the foundation and neglecting his duties. First, he has allegedly hired his friends and family with no regards to qualifications, one of whom is his son-in-law. The letter further accused him of funds misappropriation which has denied critical activities in the ecosystem the funding needed to run smoothly. Parsons has also been accused of having “zero interaction with the Cardano community” while Hoskinson has availed himself to the community regularly.
The aggrieved Cardano community members, under the moniker “Guardians of Cardano” went on to start a petition against Parsons. Part of the petition reads:
If you are a believer in the Cardano vision, an investor in the Cardano venture, or if you simply believe, regardless of the loose regulation of the crypto space, that we still deserve crypto leaders to be accountable and to be brought to justice, then you should sign the petition to help us to raise our voices and make Mr. Parsons take appropriate action.
Hoskinson followed this up with a video interview in which he further called Parsons out as negligent and a stumbling block to the development of Cardano. According to Hoskinson, Emurgo which is led by Ken Kodama and IOHK which he heads have had to take on the responsibilities of the foundation. To illustrate the level of negligence, he spoke about Cardano’s partnership with the government of Ethiopia. The foundation was allegedly invited to Ethiopia to make the deal but pulled out at the last minute. IOHK and Emurgo went through with the negotiations and when the deal was struck, the foundation allegedly accused the two of attempting to exclude it.
We just lost it at that point and we said, “Look, we are not going to work with you guys on any capacity until you publish a fair use policy” [….] This is what our relationship has been like for the past year, where they haven’t really collaborated or cooperated with us on a lot of things, they spend money in odd ways which have no purpose to the ecosystem
Hoskinson further expressed his utter displeasure at the lack of enthusiasm and passion by Parsons. “For two years, he didn’t even put ‘Chairman of The Cardano Foundation’ on his LinkedIn page,” he revealed. According to him and as proposed by the Guardians of Cardano, four “irreproachable new members” should be appointed or elected to the foundation’s council. The alternative is for Parsons to resign, he stated.
Hoskinson also revealed that the IOHK team was working on a number of updates including the first sharding design. The best days for Cardano are ahead, he stated, revealing that IOHK has hired more people as well as Emurgo welcoming new projects to build on Cardano’s infrastructure. At press time, Cardano was the ninth-largest cryptocurrency with a market value of $1.9 billion, having risen 1.2 percent in the past 24 hours.
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