Has the Bitcoin Foundation Run Out of Cash?

itwbennett writes The Bitcoin Foundation, an organization that promotes development of bitcoin, is 'effectively bankrupt' and has shed most of its staff, according to Olivier Janssens, a member of the foundation's board of directors. Janssens attributed the foundation's financial straits to two years of 'ridiculous spending and poorly thought out decisions,' adding that the board has tried to remedy the situation by finding a new executive director. Two other board members, however, said the foundation was not bankrupt, though in need of some kind of restructuring.

Comments

here's the benefit

[slashmydots]

"two years of 'ridiculous spending and poorly thought out decisions.'"
So they're morons. Here's the difference with bitcoins. These people have no control over the system, your wallet, your loans, your car title, your mortgage, your country's exchange rate, etc. They can be as stupid as they want without really affecting bitcoins.

Re: here's the benefit

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, because when mt gox (and others) went down in flames, that didn't affect the overall bitcoin economy... ...except for all of those people who trusted them to keep the money safe and lost all of it.

Make no mistake: Bitcoin inherited all the bad stuff from the "real world" economy - the con artists, the corruption, the scheming - without any of the oversight.

You can do all the shit you want, and your liability end after you say "sorry". Not even the largest bank would get away with that.

Re: here's the benefit

[Anonymous Coward]

>Not even the largest bank would get away with that.

They get away with worse. When Mt. Gox steals your money, someone else has it and spends it. Nobody else has to chip in to deal with your stupidity for trusting scumbags.

When a bank self-destructs, the government rushes to their aid, printing money to keep them afloat. A lot of it. Enough that the money of people smart enough to avoid trusting scumbags is no longer worth as much as it was before the scam.

In other words, bitcoin lets the smart person keep their money. Fiat lets the fool take from all the smart people so he doesn't starve. Which wouldn't be so bad if a bank actually had feelings and *could* starve.

Inconceivable!

[Anonymous Coward]

A group organized to prop up a currency whose entire purpose was to be untrackable and uncontrollable turned out to be filled with fraudsters and the financially incompetent who thought they could make a quick buck from untrackable, uncontrollable currency?

Inconceivable!

Re:Inconceivable!

[jones_supa]

Untrackable to individuals.

Re:HAHAHA!!! IRONY...

[TWX]

Would you accept a wildly volitaile, difficult to spend scrip that could be taxed at its highest exchange point or possibly even banned without any recourse, as your salary?

Re:Of course they can

[TWX]

So they attempted to ride the coattails of Bitcoin and failed. Not exactly a surprise given that Bitcoin doesn't have a central authority on whose coattails to ride in the first place.

Re:Of course they can

[MasseKid]

"two years of 'ridiculous spending" I'm not so sure they failed, depending on what they spent the money on. If they spent it on over paying their board or for boondoggle trips for their board, the people at the top could have come out very well, despite it being unsustainable. If someone wants to pay me 10 million dollars for example, and 2 yeas later I lose my job, I'd hardly call my employment in those two years a failure in regards to my personal fiances.