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Board member of the Ethereum Classic Cooperative resigned due to disagreement with the organization’s executive director

An Ethereum Classic Collective board member (ECC) stated that he decided to leave his position at the nonprofit research organization focused on the Ethereum Classic Network.

Wo must resign from the Ethereum Classic Board, effective immediately, because of gross mismanagement

The board member James Wo wrote in a statement:

“I regret to say that, as a matter of principle, I must resign from the Board, effective immediately, because of gross mismanagement. I have reluctantly concluded that the executive director, Bob Summerwill, lacks the integrity and judgment needed to build the organization.”

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Wo, the founder of another Ethereum Classic research group Ethereum Classic Labs, is one of the three board members of ECC. Among them, the other two are Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert and Cody Burns, a long-term Ethereum core supporter and manager of Blockchain architecture at Accenture.

In addition to resigning from the Board, Wo will also stop providing financial support to ECC in 2019 and 2020, although he claims that he offered significant financing in 2018. Besides resigning from the Board, Wo will also discontinue the financial support to ECC in 2019 and 2020, although he expanded he provided significant funding in 2018, per the statement. Wo’s statement was published hours after the Ethereum Classic network’s miner subsidy was cut from 4 ETC to 3.12 ETC per block. The change took place around 2 a.m (EST).

China-based ETC community member Chao Du said:

“James quitting ECC will have a big impact. He’s one of the few strong supporters after ETC went quiet after 2017. James mainly supports the Asia-side. The American side is mainly Terry promoting some cooperation with Ethereum.”

Wo said the resignation was just because he was incompetent and mismanaged on Summerwill’s side. In the statement, Wo accused Summerwill of nepotism, failing to meet the fundamental goal of expanding the ECC funding, pursuing a personal agenda at the organization’s expenses, among other things.

Wo said:

“There is a lack of transparency about the budget, operations, and programs. There is consistent mismanagement of finances, including funding for pet projects that have little value, and constant travel expenses that seem more personal than professional.”

Among the allegations, Wo stressed ‘s supporting for shift the existing Proof-of-Work mining algorithm Ethhash to SHA3 as an example of him pursuing a personal objective, which, in this case, is to do the opposite of Ethereum regardless of the consequences. Summerwill is expected to continue to drive this change even though the community failed to reach an agreement on it in the November discussion. Based on a screenshot Summerwill sent to a group chat called #Core in February, Summerwill described the next hard fork as including the SHA3 proposal. However, Wo said this proposal was not discussed nor agreed upon.

Summerwill has allegedly not provided Wo or the Board with any financial reports

Meanwhile, Summerwill reportedly did not offer Wo or the Board with any financial statements. US nonprofits are required by law to file Form 990 to the Internal Revenue Service to maintain its tax exemption status.

ECC applied for 2018, and Wo said this was the only report available to him. However, the ECC published mid-year and late-2018 assessments that said they had $ 530,000 in cash by the end of 2018.

In January, Grayscale Investments, a subsidiary of DCG, announced it would extend financial support to ECC for another two years. Since 2017, the company has donated about $ 1 million to the organization. In the second half of 2018, the company raised $ 250,000, with 15,000 registered ETC as other contributions, according to the year-end ECC report for 2018.

It is unclear whether some of the 15,000 ETC will be Wo’s contribution, as he stated that he had provided significant financing to the ECC in 2018 and was prepared to implement it in 2019-2020. Meanwhile, the ECC promised to publish a full year transparency report for 2019 in March 2020 when the Grayscale announcement was made, although the report could not be found on the ECC website.

Wo said:

“I don’t make this decision lightly. I respect Bob’s experience. But I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be associated with an organization whose executive director divides our community, lacks integrity, and is only looking out for himself. The Coop needs an experienced and professional leader who can collaborate with others.”

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