Michael Parsons Resigns — What’s Next for Cardano?

In a press release dated November 13, 2018, the Cardano Foundation announced the resignation of the Chairman of the Foundation Council of the Cardano Foundation, Michael Parsons. This is in response to a petition, signed by over 6,000 Cardano community members in early in October 2018, calling for him to resign.

Parsons will be replaced with immediate effect on an interim basis by Pascal Schmid, who is a member of the Council.

This change in leadership in the Cardano Foundation has been predicted, as there has been an ongoing internal rift inside the organization for a while. The CEO of IOHK, Charles Hoskinson, has been quite outspoken about his dissatisfaction of what is going on in the Cardano Foundation.

As one of the masterminds behind Ethereum and Cardano (where he is currently active), Hoskinson wields a lot of influence in the Cardano community.

He has previously cited the lack of vision, transparency, proper fund allocation, and financial accountability as all major problems in Cardano. In fact, he has insinuated that the governance of the Foundation is like a monarchy rule where the Chairman dictates what he wants to the staffs.

The sentiment that the project was being paralyzed by the then-chairman, Michael Parsons, began to grow in the Cardano community. This is perhaps the main driving force behind Parsons’ resignation as Chairman of the Cardano Foundation. It must be noted, however, that Parsons resigned of his own free will, and there was no form of payoff from the Foundation.

The news of the resignation is perceived as a victory for the Cardano community by Hoskinson. He likened the event to the end of an era of captivity:

What’s Next for the Cardano Foundation

According to Hoskinson, the Cardano Foundation needs to spend the next 1-2 months for clean-up, restructuring and reinventing itself.

With Parsons gone, he believes the Foundation can restore its credibility, trust, and faith with the community. He expects the Foundation to be more democratic, expects more diversity in the board, and suggests (at least) 7 board members.

He also expressed that the Foundation should invest in its jurisdiction (as a Swiss Foundation), collaborate with regulators, and continue to operate as a viable entity within the ecosystem. He then stated that IOHK will continue to work with the Cardano Foundation to make Cardano move forward.

Charles Hoskinson’s full reaction to the resignation can be viewed in the video below.

Despite the internal rift in Cardano, the project has witnessed tangible progress in recent times, which includes Trezor wallet announcing their official support for the ADA cryptocurrency and Project Icarus passing the security audit.

Q1 2019 is expected to be full of developmental achievement for Cardano, as the project will be able to move forward without the previous leadership and management restraints.

This change in Cardano stands as proof of the power of democracy over authoritarian governance structure in the blockchain industry. It is important for democratic, transparent governance structures to be established in the crypto industry, as those ideals of decentralization are what will distinguish it the traditional fiat system.