IOTA responds to leaked chats revealing a heated internal strife

Sergey Ivancheglo, co-founder of IOTA, has stated a vote of no confidence in his compatriot co-founder Dominik Schiener, as outlined in a leaked chat-log transcript on Pastebin.

The transcript opens with a note from Ivangheglo stating, “I inform everyone that I [no] longer trust Dominik Schiener and I think he should quit the IOTA Foundation [sic] for the better future of IOTA.”

Current details of why Ivancheglo (better known as Come-from-Beyond ) is expressing this concern of Schiener remain unclear and are not explored in the chat-log transcript. However, the log goes into great detail discussing the process for Schiener’s removal and how he will be superseded.

This instance only adds to the controversy that the foundation has suffered in recent months. Back in April of this year, fellow co-founder David Sønstebø accused a now-former employee of exploiting the brand for personal gains. He further insisted the employee in question never officially held a position in the foundation.

Given the state of proceedings, it would seem that IOTA has been discussing this issue for some time.

The leaked chats suggest one of the main points of contention is how IOTA can change its statute as a foundation to ensure there is sufficient voting power to oust Schiener from the board. (IOTA has since released a statement to clarify that Schiener will remain on the board.)

But Schiener himself stated he won’t go down without a fight.

“Good luck.” He wrote in the leaked chats. “IOTA AS will have some serious legal issues with the advisor tokens and the impending tax audit. I am done with this. I am done with being threatened. [T]his is the course of action that both of you want to take, then I’m all for it. [I]f you want to be enemies, lets [sic] fight.”

Members of the IOTA Discord channel are speculating that the altercation could have immense impact on the future of the Foundation and its token price – especially because the foundation has managed to secure collaborations from corporate giants like Bosch and Volkswagen.

Factoring in the price drop IOTA has experienced over the last 24 hours, it is entirely possible things could get even worse as more information comes to light.

Meanwhile, Ralf Rottman, who is a member of the Board of Directors, is purportedly preparing an official statement on the whole affair. “Rest assured, we all love IOTA and are in this together,” Rottman wrote. “I’m confident, we will heal from this and get out of it even stronger!”

It is unclear where the leaked document came from, but nobody from the management team seems to be questioning its legitimacy so far. Whatever the case, it seems nobody has an issue with the whole world knowing about IOTA’s family feud – regardless of the impact it could have on its value and stability.

Hard Fork has reached out for comment and will update this piece accordingly once we hear back.

Live update: IOTA has just released an official statement. Find the full text here .

Among other things, the statement suggests Ivancheglo’s outburst was nothing more than an emotional response. “Sergey Ivancheglo has since stated that asking for Dominik to resign was an emotional reaction to the situation, which had built up over months,” the statement reads.

According to the statement, “The current board has decided, to move forward with inviting the two missing founders into the IOTA Foundation [sic] Board of Directors, based on a mutually signed Memorandum of Understanding, which defines the modus operandi for collaboration, until the changes to the statute can be formally established.”

The foundation further clarified the final decision will be made “no later than” August 10.

BitConnect is a Ponzi scheme, Ethereum and Litecoin founders warn

The cryptocurrency community is slowly but steadily growing more suspicious of BitConnect and its dubious business model. Crypto pioneers, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Litecoin founder Charlie lee, have spoken up against the bullish Bitcoin investment platform, calling it a Ponzi scheme.

Shortly after former Fortress Investment Group partner Michael Novogratz took to Twitter to share his opinion that BitConnect “really seems like a scam,” Buterin and Lee also chimed in to second the ex-hedge fund manager’s criticism.

Backing up Novogratz’s suspicions, Buterin and Lee both noted the Bitcoin lending investment site is showing all symptoms of a “classic Ponzi scheme.”

When asked to elaborate on his stance, the Ethereum founder said the following:

While this marks the first time Lee has shared his thoughts on BitConnect, Buterin had previously expressed skepticism about the Bitcoin lending platform on other occasions.

Asked about the sustainability of its business model, which roughly offers 1-percent daily return on investments, the Ethereum founder commented that all signs seem to suggest BitConnect is running a Ponzi scheme. In all fairness, Buterin did clarify that he wasn’t all that familiar with BitConnect at the time.

Earlier in November, a filing on the UK Registrar of Companies revealed the British Companies House has sent an official warning to BitConnect, threatening to shut down the Bitcoin investment site and dissolve its operations.

According to the documents, BitConnect was given two months to prove “ cause to the contrary” until the decision has been formally enforced.

Still, as pointed out in our previous coverage, House of Companies’ records indicate that BitConnect has been listed on its registrar under at least three different names – BITCONNECT LTD, BITCONNECT INTERNATIONAL PLC, and BITCOIN AMR LIMITED .

The concerning strike-off notice was sent to BITCONNECT LTD, but its connection to the other two entities remains unclear. In fact, many speculate that neither of these UK registrations are legitimate.

An alarming number of the individuals listed as stakeholders in BitConnect appear to be registered with inconsistent addresses and birth dates. Additionally, Twitter sleuths have since confirmed with some of the purported stakeholders that the details behind their names are indeed not authentic.

Cryptocurrency influencers had so far opted to maintain a safe distance from BitConnect and all the Ponzi talk around it, but it all but seems the situation is swiftly starting to change.

As I recently argued in another piece , when mainstream attention is finally shifting to the cryptocurrency market, every little fail could have huge repercussions for the entire market. This is why it is so important that respected figures in the community don’t shy away from openly discussing their reservations about other players in the field.

Another reason for concern is that the stunning popularity of BitConnect has spawned off a number of equally fishy copycat companies, seeking to mimic the business model of the Bitcoin investment platform, but with other currencies.

Among others, the list so far includes EthConnect (based on Ethereum), XRPConnect (based on Ripple), and NEOConnect (based on NEO ).

Despite all the doubt surrounding BitConnect, the platform has managed to cement its position as one of the twenty leading cryptocurrencies by market share, according to stats from Coin Market Cap . In fact, prior to a re-calculation of its total circulating supply, BitConnect used to be among the top 10 biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

One of the ways in which the Bitcoin lending investment platform has managed to maintain its popularity is through its large network of (affiliate) promoters, defending the platform on YouTube and other social channels – though often without offering legitimate proof in return, other than screenshots of their earnings.

Do your research thoroughly before placing all your eggs in BitConnect’s basket: all that glitters is not gold.

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Opera’s built-in cryptocurrency price converter is actually pretty useful

Earlier this year Opera announced it is updating its built-in currency converter to support cryptocurrency, starting with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).

The feature has been there for a couple of months now, but it seems it has remained under the radar for most crypto-enthusiasts – which is why we decided to give it a spin.

For those unfamiliar, the currency converter essentially lets you convert fiat currencies to BTC, BCH, ETH or LTC by simply highlighting the original amount – without leaving the site or using third-party converters.

Here is how it looks:

Opera users can enable the feature if they follow these steps:

Head to Preferences

Select the ‘Browser’ sub-section

There you will find the ‘User interface’ field

Tick the ‘On text selection convert currency” box and select your currency of choice.

Done!

Having said that, the tool is far from perfect. For one, it works only in cases when there is a currency sign to detect (like $ or €). This means that anytime a website delineates money with currency acronyms (like USD or EUR), the built-in currency converter just won’t work.

This practically means that the feature doesn’t support converting other cryptocurrencies. While it will convert fiat currencies to your preferred cryptocurrency of choice (as long there is a currency sign to detect), it won’t convert one cryptocurrency into another. So you will have to resort to Coin Market Cap or other price monitoring services in such cases after all.

The other minor nuisance is that the feature will only take into account digits:the tool still works if you highlight spelled out amounts, it but won’t factor in words like “thousand,” “million,” and “billion.” For instance, if you ask the converter to show you the price of “$31 million” in ETH, it will only select the “$31” part.

Here is how this looks:

In all fairness though, the feature is still a useful addition to anyone who is in the habit of converting fiat currencies to crypto in their heads – and will likely save them some time and clicks in the long run.

Opera has expressed willingness to tweak its browser in order to cater to cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the past.

Indeed, the company baked in protections against malicious netizens seeking to steal users’ CPU power to surreptitiously mine cryptocurrency.

Clarification: Opera has since reached out to clarify that the currency converter is automatically switched on by default, meaning that you only have to select your desired conversion rate.

It also mentioned that the tool should work with currency acronyms (like USD). From what we could see in our tests, this functionality seems to be a hit-or-miss though.