This weekend Vessenes' Bitcoin Foundation board member Oliver Janssens offered a scathing critique of the "non-profit" organization. The attempted rebuttal (archived) rather than refuting, merely edged Janssens's points. The foundation's four points are offered in condensed form below:
- The Vessenes Foundation is not bankrupt in the actual legal sense. It is merely on the edge of insolvency. Bankruptcy is a legal determination, and the Foundation merely lacks money.
- Just because the Vessenes Foundation could not maintain 90% of its staff doesn't mean they were fired. They were offered volunteer positions and occasionally people acquiesced to volunteering.
- Donor concern over Foundation governance structure is a problem they are aware of and they continue to wrestle this problem.
- Executive Director Patrick Murck is sworn to have volunteered to stop cashing checks and begin volunteering.
The byline on the piece attributes its authorship to the "Bitcoin Foundation Board of Directors" though it is hard to believe the entire board consented to this designation, when one board member very loudly and publicly raised the concerns the Vessenes Foundation is responding to.