Tezos Falling Apart? Top Leadership Bickering Into Chaos

Outrageous, unnecessary, acrimonious—these are but a few of the words being used to describe the ongoing dispute between the founders of “Ethereum-killer” Tezos and the founders of the Tezos Foundation.

Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, the husband-and-wife creators of the platform, are accusing Johann Gevers of mismanaging the funds raised in the Tezos ICO—a whopping sum now worth over $400 million.

As Founder and president of the Tezos Foundation, Johann Gevers has responded by saying the Breitmans are making outrageous claims against him in an effort to gain more financial control over the 65,703 bitcoins and 361,122 ether raised during the world’s largest ICO to date.

The creation of the Tezos Foundation and Gevers’ appointment to head up the foundation were originally done at the Breitmans’ request, which makes the current dispute so surprising.

It all boils down to control. Per Swiss law, the Foundation is supposed to have total financial autonomy. But the Breitmans’ attorneys have delivered a 46-page letter to the Foundation’s three-person board demanding the immediate removal of Gevers and the creation of a “new structure” for the Foundation that would give the couple more power.

Fight between $232 million project Tezos founders: #ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned this centralization issue in ICOs before. pic.twitter.com/kTE0Qk7sO8 — Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) October 20, 2017

For his part, Gevers is not backing down.

“This is attempted character assassination. It’s a long laundry list of misleading statements and outright lies … [They’re] attempting an illegal coup.”

And Kathleen Breitman told the Wall Street Journal the fight was in their lawyers’ hands now, saying, “The best I can do is put my head down and work on the code.”

The legal dispute is certainly ugly news for Tezos at a time when its decentralized smart contracts platform is still yet to be launched.

Investors won’t be happy; nor should they be. It’s clear this civil war will ensure this “Ethereum killer” won’t be killing Ethereum any time soon.







TLDR: The founders of Tezos are feuding with the founder of the platform’s foundation, and the $400 million raised during Tezos’ record-breaking ICO is on the line.

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