Trying to Stem Fallout From Spat, Tezos Foundation Replaces President ‎Gevers

The Tezos Foundation has appointed a new president to manage the +$1 ‎billion funds of its embattled cryptocurrency project. Ryan Jesperson, a ‎contributor of the blockchain-based startup, will replace Johann Gevers, who ‎departs after a prolonged spat with the inventors of the Tezos technology, Arthur ‎and Kathleen Breitman since 2017. ‎

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The Swiss foundation has also added Michel ‎Mauny, a French computer programming academic, to its three-person directorship panel. He ‎succeeded the outgoing board member Diego Olivier Fernandez Pons.‎

In a statement issued on Thursday, the foundation said the decision to appoint ‎Jesperson and Mauny had been unanimous. The duo joins Lars Haussmann, who ‎was appointed last month, as new members to the board.‎

The management spat and the limited progress in developing its product has sent derivatives ‎on Tezos tokens sharply lower as anxious investors unwound bets that the project would be ‎launched while the actual tokens, known as ‘tezzies’, have yet to be ‎created.‎

‎“With the appointment of the two new members to the Board, the Foundation is preparing itself to assist in the timely launch of the Tezos network,” the startup said.‎

The outgoing chief ‎is also facing his own version of problems after his digital payment start-up ‎Monetas was declared bankrupt by a court in Zug. He previously announced plans ‎to create an executive board to handle the day-to-day running of the foundation’s ‎responsibilities

Tezos has set up a complex governance structure where the token’s developers own the code, ‎but the $232 million raised in the ICO, which has grown now to more $1 billion, will be ‎managed and controlled by an independent Swiss foundation, now headed by Ryan Jesperson.‎