Parsons' Departure Welcomed by Cardano Community

Cardano Foundation chairman Michael Parsons has resigned from his position, and will be replaced by Pascal Schmid on an interim basis. The news has been overwhelmingly welcomed as positive by the Cardano community, since there was a lot of frustration over the rift between the Cardano Foundation on one side and IOHK and Emurgo on the other. The council, of which Schmid is the only member at the moment, will be expanded with additional members:

“The Foundation is working to supplement the Foundation Council with suitable persons as soon as possible.”

Re-integrating the Cardano Foundation

The two parties publicly distanced themselves from the Cardano Foundation in October, saying that the foundation has been failing to meet its obligations and that its issues stemmed from Michael Parsons’s ineffective leadership. IOHK and Emurgo said they would assume some of the Cardano Foundation’s roles, but it appears that the change in leadership will allow the Cardano Foundation to restructure and continue working with the other elements of the Cardano ecosystem.

According to Charles Hoskinson, Parsons received no severance pay for leaving the foundation.

Some of the Cardano Foundation’s roles include driving adoption of the Cardano blockchain platform, organizing community meet ups and lobbying for the interests of Cardano, for example through securing listings on cryptocurrency exchanges. IOHK is in charge of Cardano’s technical development, while Emurgo is working with commercial ventures that are looking to build on Cardano.

The Cardano Foundation is an independent organization based in Switzerland. Due to its independence, there was no mechanism to remove Michael Parsons from his position – he stepped down voluntarily.

In a video posted to his personal YouTube channel, IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson went into Parsons’ resignation and the future of the Cardano Foundation in more detail: