Twelve staff members involved in Aragon Network announced their resignations last week due to an apparent lack of financial transparency.
The Aragon project
In a letter posted on GitHub and shared on the group's Discord channel, Aragon Association (AA) Governance Officer John Light announced that he would be leaving. “I no longer recognize the place I used to like to work,” he wrote.
"I believe it no longer reflects my values, nor the values of the Aragon Manifesto." Light has been with the AA for three years, it appears from his posts. Aragon Network is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that seeks to build digital courtrooms that "allow organizations, entrepreneurs and investors to do business without a legal link," according to Messari.
The project is supported by the Association and Aragon One, a joint stock company financed by the Association. Although Light has not made any other comments at the time, he asked in his letter that the AA "publish all meeting minutes and financial data for public review" in the future.
Light's resignation was then followed by 11 other public resignations of staff members from Aragon One, the for-profit company that leads the development of the protocol. Almost all of the resignation posts in the project's Discord channel were linked to Light's letter.
Financial data from the Aragon Association
The mass exodus of the developers of Aragon was preceded by a sum of approximately 52.000 ether (quotation ETH) from the 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) of the project transferred to various exchanges on 15 December and 22 December.
At least some of that amount in ETH - worth $ 63,9 million at press time - has been moved to various other cryptocurrencies and tokens, most notably the dollar-linked stablecoin tether (USDT).
It is unclear whether this massive transfer of funds was a catalyst for the resignation. The AA retains ownership of the group's ICO funds, based on the Aragon Manifesto. Aragon Association co-founder Luis Cuende said ETH was moved for "portfolio diversification" when requested by community members in Discord.
"While I am saddened to see these resignations, some divergences in Aragon's development approach are inevitable," said Joe Charlesworth, executive director of the Aragon Association. “The Aragon Association was proud to have funded the valuable work of third-party groups like Aragon One. In the end, however, Aragon is bigger than any individual and bigger than any group ”.
In a statement on Discord, Aragon One CEO Jorge Izquierdo said: “For now I just want to say that I have the deepest respect for all the members of the Aragon One team who have decided to leave the defense of the Aragon Manifesto. to the saddest consequences. Guys, you are Aragon and your presence is irreplaceable. "
