Arthur Breitman, the shy co-founder of Tezos, talks about the roller coaster ride that he’s been on since the launch of the project.
Low Profile Creator
Not many within the crypto community know about Arthur Breitman, the co-founder of Tezos. Breitman, who is of French origin, prefers to maintain a low profile, unlike some of his peers who enjoy the limelight.
Tezos is among the top 18 blockchain projects in the world by market capitalization and ran one of the most successful ICOs last year that raised $232 million.
Breitman spoke candidly to online media website Decrypt Media about his background and Tezos’ journey so far.
“I don’t like the whole big announcements thing. Some people don’t even know that Tezos is launched because everything was very low key,” said Breitman.
He added:
I like low key. It’s a cultural thing, a very French thing. American culture is different. American culture is known for bragging, whereas in France, you brag as little as possible.
Breitman Talks About the Bumpy Ride
Tezos, which is the world’s first “self-amending” cryptocurrencies, ran into trouble earlier in February when issues cropped up within the management team of the foundation.
Johann Gevers, the third member of the management team other than Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, according to the article, “allegedly refused to disburse funds to developers, awarded himself bonus worth millions and accused the Breitmans of improper influence in the foundation’s affairs.”
Then the SEC labeled the Tezos tokens as a security. The project was literally on the verge of collapse, according to Breitman.
While the Breitmans managed to address the SEC’s concerns, a legal battle against Gevers ensued. The couple found themselves on the receiving end of bad press and of threats and lawsuits by investors.
Breitman admitted that he had many anxious moments during the tumultuous period but maintained that the platform development did not suffer. He said, “The victim of this thing is really the technology because people spoke so much about Tezos.”
Elaborating that the project had a testnet that was live as early as February 2017, Breitman admitted that all the fuss “was an unwelcome distraction, but the platform never stopped advancing.”
The Revival of the Project
Gevers stepped down after accepting a severance fee of $400,000. The Breitmans’ focus and never-say-die attitude helped the project get back on track, and by the end of June, the mainnet of the Tezos blockchain went live.
The protocol uses a proof-of-stake consensus. Nodes participate in on-chain governance and control the direction of the network. A Tezos node needs at least 10,000 tokens to participate in the validation of transactions.
Despite the setbacks that the Breitmans faced early in the year, they exhibited firm resolve to bounce back. The cryptocurrency recently listed on Kraken, and there are rumors of a listing on Coinbase soon. Also, the Ledger hardware wallet supports the coin.
In addition, the Tezos Foundation handed out over $30 million in grants, which are to be used to help develop tools and services for the platform. Funding has also been set aside for engineers to work on mobile development.
What are your thoughts on the Tezos blockchain and its future? Let us know in the comments below.
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