Bitcoin Foundation sees mass resignations in protest of new director

The Bitcoin Foundation is seeing an exodus of members in the wake of the appointment of heavy Bitcoin investor Brock Pierce as the new director. The departures on the eve of the cryptocurrency’s annual conference are for various reasons, including misconduct allegations against Pierce from as early as 2000, in addition to other allegations of misconduct among foundation members. The election was held to fill two vacant spots on the board. The first was opened up by the resignation of Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles, and the other by online drug purchasing venue Silk Road’s operator Charlie Shrem. 

As the most prominent trade group pushing adoption of the electronic currency Bitcoin begins its annual conference on Friday, it is being roiled by controversy. At least 10 members of the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation have resigned over last week’s election of onetime Disney child star and current Bitcoin entrepreneur and financier Brock Pierce as a new director, officials at the group said. Some of the members cited Pierce’s troubled past. That includes allegations in lawsuits from three employees of Pierce’s first company, bankrupt web video business Digital Entertainment Network, that he provided drugs and pressured them for sex when they were minors. Pierce has denied the accusations, which first surfaced in 2000. “The allegations against me are not true, and I have never had intimate or sexual contact with any of the people who made those allegations,” Pierce told Reuters via email.