Welcome to the first installment of the Leftover Bits, our attempt to bring you the day’s news while still devoting the bulk of our time to investigative journalism. Every Tuesday through Saturday morning you can expect you find the most important news of the day in a quick, digestible format with links for further reading.
You know how these things work, enough with the intros already:
Bruce Fenton Picked As Executive Director Of The Bitcoin Foundation
The Bitcoin Foundation has had a less than ideal start to 2015. The elections of Olivier Janssens and Jim Harper sent a clear message that the Foundation’s new focus on Core Development was not resonating with donors and members. Then, Olivier Janssens blew the whistle on the Foundation’s financial woes, and things went from bad to worse.
Janssens predicted that the Foundation would attempt to replace Patrick Murck as executive director and he looked like Nostradamus yesterday. The Foundation Board voted 5-1 in favor of replacing Murck with Bruce Fenton. Fenton, who indicated to CoinDesk that he hasn’t yet gotten a full look at the financial situation himself, promised financial reforms.
Hopefully those reforms come with a healthy dose of transparency.
Price Drops Below £150
The Bitcoin price seemed to be holding stable at the £170 mark, which is significant because of the psychological barrier of USD $250 for the United States market. It hit another rough patch on Monday, dropping below £150 on the ANXBTC exchange for a brief time on Monday.
While the Bitcoin price has seen a consistent downward trend since its late 2013/ early 2014 high, venture capitalist investment continues to pour in. That is likely a better indicator of the long term health of Bitcoin than the day-to-day price.
Still, a lot of blood out there in the day trading market so far this week. At press time, the price is holding at around £150.
Jon Matonis Joins First Global Credit
Speaking of the Bitcoin Foundation, Patrick Murck’s predecessor Jon Matonis is moving on to First Global Credit.
Matonis stepped down as the Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director in October and has been more or less out of the public eye ever since. Matonis was a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation.
First Global Credit allows users to buy stocks, securities, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and various other financial instruments with Bitcoin. Matonis will serve as the board’s non-executive Director, the announcement was made last week, but went largely unreported.
We will have another edition of Leftover Bits tomorrow morning.