April 19, 2026

Capitalizations Index – B ∞/21M

Tezos Foundation President Vows to “Step Back,” Then Back Pedals

Tezos foundation president vows to “step back,” then back pedals

Tezos Foundation President Vows to “Step Back,” Then Back Pedals

Bitcoin transactions
Advertisement

Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month.

It’s perhaps what one might expect from the infamous ICO that was Tezos.

Tezos is one of those blockchain startups that gripped the crypto community, first for its ability to raise $230 million in an ICO and then for how quickly they let it all slip away. Now Johann Gevers, the head of the startup’s Swiss Foundation who is also at the center of the battle with Tezos co-founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, is backing down, promising in a blog post entitled “Moving Tezos Forward” to “step back” from the foundation that controls the Tezos proceeds once the project is moving forward again — only to confuse matters by removing the post.

Reuters got ahold of it, with the news agency reporting that the ICO funds are no longer frozen, paving the way for Tezos to pay its service providers. Gevers said in the now deleted post:

“I have consistently communicated … my intention to step back from the Foundation as soon as things are on track with a new board that is independent and has the support of the Tezos community.”

Gevers confirmed that he removed the blog but said that the plans are still in motion, according to a statement captured by a Reddit user –

“I was advised to take down this post for prudential reasons. Both I and the Tezos Foundation remain committed to communicating with the community within the constraints imposed on us, and will follow through on the plans outlined in yesterday’s post.”

Gevers chose Medium as the platform for the blog post because the Breitmans retain control of the website properties, which is a sign that the turmoil between these parties hasn’t lessened any.

Tezos 2.0

Meanwhile, Tezos is doing what it can to move forward, and after suffering the defection of board member Guido Schmitz-Krummacher has announced the appointment of another. Lars Haussmann is taking Schmitz-Krummacher’s seat after the latter stepped down amid the battle for control between the Breitmans and Gevers.

But the damage has already been done, and swapping out board members adds little solace to buyers of the Tezzie tokens, as they’re called, who were the victims in a stalled project that was at the mercy of bitter infighting. A pair of class-action lawsuits were lodged against the startup, focusing on the company’s failure to register the Tezos token with securities regulators.

Adding insult to injury, Kathleen Breitman — while investors were unable to access their funds from the Tezos ICO — suggested that the bitcoin and Ethereum directed toward the project are considered a charitable donation, not an investment, which only infuriated investors more.

Based on his original blog post, Gevers hopes the Tezos project can pick up where it left off, but whether or not that will materialize will depend not only on the company’s management but also on the Tezos community, who till now have been left out in the cold.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Follow us on Telegram.
Advertisement

Published at Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:35:02 +0000

ICO[wpr5_ebay kw=”bitcoin” num=”1″ ebcat=”” cid=”5338043562″ lang=”en-US” country=”0″ sort=”bestmatch”]

Previous Article

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Are Pretty Low Right Now: Here's Why

Next Article

Portfolio Chiefs Quit World’s Largest Asset Manager to Launch Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund

You might be interested in …

Bitkan Experiment Shows Japan is No Bitcoin Mecca on the Ground

Bitkan has said the consumer bitcoin scene in Japan is still “difficult to use” after staff conducted an investigation in Tokyo.


Bitkan: Japan bitcoin Payments Still ‘Difficult’

The decentralized trading platform, which is headquartered in China but looking to expand into the Japanese market, also released a documentary film about using bitcoin in the country in 2017.

Last month, Bitkan organized a Tokyo Bitcoin meetup which saw some of the largest ever audiences debate the local scene as well as current technological issues facing the bitcoin ecosystem. Roger Ver and Jihan Wu were among the attendees.

“We used Coinmap to search advertisements of businesses accepting bitcoin,” operations director Sandy Liang told Bitcoinist in emailed comments about the research.

“These places had a ‘bitcoin accepted’ sticker, and where it was possible to use it to pay, staff appeared familiar with the payment process.”

bitcoin’s Mixed Fortunes Evident In Payment Landscape

Japan hit the headlines in February following the temporary moratorium on Chinese bitcoin trading, becoming the world’s largest bitcoin exchange market.

As reports heralded a total of 4500 outlets accepting the virtual currency, reactions from users on the ground struck a decidedly different note, stating that in reality bitcoin payments were almost unnoticeable.

Liang shared this view following Bitkan marketing director Ruby Chen’s attempt to live off Bitcoin for 72 hours in Tokyo but remained positive about the future.

“We have to say that it’s not very convenient to use bitcoin in Tokyo for covering all expenses, compared with fiat. For now, it’s really hard to live only on bitcoin,” she said.

“However, it’s getting easier and easier. The growing number of bitcoin ATMs, for instance, allows the option of converting BTC to yen as an alternative.”

She added that the depth of incentives for consumers to pay using the virtual currency was also lacking. Discounts and other marketing schemes were not in evidence at all, making the idea of transitioning to a notionally more convenient, empowering payment method appear daunting.

Big Business Paving Way For Change

Meanwhile, the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges are busy laying the foundations for what could be a seismic shift in attitudes in the coming years.

BitFlyer and Coincheck, both major market players in Japan, have recently announced partnerships with big business specifically with the aim of expanding the number of merchants with whom consumers may pay using bitcoin.

The former is working with Japanese economics giant Bic Camera to roll out bitcoin payments across its empire, with a trial initially limited to two flagship stores in Tokyo. Customers are able to pay up to 10,000 yen ($900) in bitcoin.

Coincheck meanwhile is seeking to expand the merchant base even further – by up to 260,000 – through allowing merchants using PoS app AirRegi to also accept bitcoin.

Such an expansion would place bitcoin on par with extant fiat payment app acceptance numbers, the most popular being Suica and Edy with up to 470,000 locations.

[Note: This is a sponsored article]

What do you think about Japan’s bitcoin journey? Let us know in the comments below!


Images courtesy of Shutterstock. BitKan

The post Bitkan Experiment Shows Japan is No Bitcoin Mecca on the Ground appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.