The Facts About the Bitcoin Foundation

by Bitcoin Foundation Board of Directors

Recently, there have been some speculative posts on Reddit and the Bitcoin Foundation Forum about the Bitcoin Foundation. Below we are providing the facts as well as context to provide clarity to the misstatements:

The Foundation is not bankrupt nor have there been any discussions regarding a potential bankruptcy. As with other bitcoin companies that hold bitcoin, the drop in bitcoin price drastically affected the Foundation’s bottom line as the majority of assets were held in bitcoin.

In the last board meeting, the management team presented an austere, yet clear, path forward for the board. The board of directors voted on March 31, 2015 to proceed with the strategic plan and to work out a communications plan to roll out the decision along with the finished annual report for members and the public. That strategic plan proposed by the management team was to be rolled out this week. For those interested, it has been made available on the forum here.

The Foundation also did not fire 90% of its people. The Foundation holds the majority of its assets in bitcoin so when the price of bitcoin dropped last year to under $400 and then held steady in the $200 range, tough decisions were made to trim down programs and instead, focus on funding developers working on the Bitcoin Core Protocol. This meant downsizing our team as the Foundation could not continue supporting the full team. Some team members left voluntarily and agreed to continue helping on a volunteer basis to help the Foundation during this financially austere time.

Every board member received and reviewed the financial reports as well as the strategic plan forward as proposed by the management team. The board was also informed that potential donors and investors interested in funding core development expressed concerns over the Foundation’s corporate governance structure - that is specifically an elected board. The strategic plan addressed these concerns.

As stated above, given the current financial situation and bitcoin price, the Executive Director, along with other team members, volunteered to take himself off payroll and serve as a volunteer to help the Foundation. We commend these team members who have operated under a great deal of uncertainty and continue to look out and do what is best for the organization and ecosystem as a whole.

We look forward to working productively with the community for the best possible outcome for the continued promotion and advancement of the bitcoin project.