The Bitcoin Foundation’s election to find two directors for its industry seats has closed, but failed to find any outright winning candidates, under the terms of the foundation’s bylaws.
According to the Bitcoin Foundation, reported that there was a 75% turnout for the election, with 102 out of 137 eligible members casting a vote.
The foundation’s election committee chairman, Brian Goss, stated on the foundation forum that a candidate must have a minimum of 52 votes to be elected. Given that there were fifteen candidates and only 137 eligible voters, there was a high likelihood that one or both of the seats would require a run-off vote.
The top three candidates in the first round of elections were: BTC China CEO, Bobby Lee, with 44 votes; entrepreneur Brock Pierce, with 34 votes; and Gyft CEO, Vinny Lingham, with 21 votes.
Goss reported that details of the second round of voting would be announced early next week.
Bobby Lee gave an extensive statement detailing his views and wishes for how the Bitcoin Foundation and the community as a whole should pursue mainstream adoption of Bitcoin:
“In order for Bitcoin to have long term success in the world, it is paramount that we work closely with government regulators worldwide, to educate and promote the positive aspects of Bitcoin, and dispel the inaccuracies and wrong perceptions. With a positive and cooperative mindset, we can hope to work with regulators to legitimize bitcoin, while at the same time, addressing their real concerns, and minimizing the problem scenarios. “
Vinny Lingham’s campaign statement was, of course, more focused on retail applications of Bitcoin:
“Vinny believes that Bitcoin is still nascent in the eye of the average consumer and through his company, Gyft, he has become a public advocate for the use of Bitcoin by consumers for retail purchases and the like. He has also recently penned a thought provoking article about how mainstream adoption is lagging merchant adoption.”
The statement for Brock Pierce included:
“Pierce’s entrepreneurial activities focus around digital currencies like Bitcoin, games, gambling, ad tech and payments. He is the founder of IMI Exchange, the world’s leading digital currency marketplace with sales exceeding $1 billion annually; ZAM, one of the world’s largest media properties for gamers with more than 15 million monthly users which was sold in January 2012 to Tencent; and IGE, the company credited with pioneering the market for digital currency in online games, which generated $100 million in revenue in 2006 and was sold in early 2007.”
There was some response to the first round of elections on the Bitcoin subreddit, which ranged between concerns over allegations made against a former colleague of Brock Pierce, to general dissatisfaction with the Bitcoin Foundation.
The Bitcoin Foundation election is a developing story, and we’ll report back with the results, and likely implications for the foundation.
