A statement from the Fantom Foundation
Although we have previously addressed much of the miscommunication about Fantom that has been made recently, we continue to see some of this misinformation still in circulation.
In addition, very recently a company called “Rekt” put out an article full of factual inaccuracies- a debunked article making many false claims about the Foundation. Rekt almost immediately issued a retraction of the publication.
We can’t know if this misinformation is being spread out of ignorance or malice, but we do know that these inaccuracies have the potential to hurt the reputation of Fantom, the Foundation team, and perhaps most importantly, its community.
First and foremost, the contributors are what made Fantom as strong as it is today. They are responsible for the network having processed over 200 million transactions with over 2 million active wallets. It is not the work of one individual or a few individuals that have made this possible, but thousands from around the world.
The Foundation's intention has always been to help grow and support the ecosystem by developing a decentralized, permissionless, and leaderless chain that anyone from the world can interact with.
But sometimes we face unforeseen challenges and growing pains. How we react and work to overcome these challenges is most important and will define our future successes. The Fantom team is fully vested in the success of the Fantom ecosystem and in continuing to foster and invest in groundbreaking new projects. Our mission remains the same and will never change.
That said, here are some specific inaccuracies we wish to correct- most notably about Andre Cronje:
- While it is true that Andre has officially stepped away from all crypto and DeFi, he has however, put out the following clarifying statement:“Although I’ve made the decision to move away from crypto and DeFi, the Fantom team has been nothing but honorable throughout my engagement with them. I believe they are on the right technology path, and I have no doubts that they will continue to succeed.”
- Andre assisted Fantom as an advisor. This was always made clear on the Foundation website and elsewhere. He provided high-level technical and treasury management advice, and would put us in contact with individuals and projects that he respected and believed would be good for the Fantom ecosystem.
- Andre and Anton did not “terminate” 25 projects. Any involvement (such as user interface) in these projects was to be handed over to the existing teams, many of whom had been developing and running independently. For example, both Multichain and Yearn Finance have teams that have been operating for years.
- Andre and Anton have never been “core developers” of Fantom. Andre helped establish the existing team of developers, but it is the team themselves that have built the Fantom technology stack. Some of the developers on the core team have been with Fantom for years, and are actively making further improvements to the technology going forward, most notably with the middleware / FVM, and snapsync, which will allow nodes to sync much faster.
- Andre did not “build Fantom’s technology”; No one person can.
- Andre and Anton have not been running 25 projects simultaneously. No two individuals could. As mentioned, many (if not all) of these projects have their own teams.
- The Foundation has not been involved in the creation of any of these 25 projects.
- Fantom’s technology development is continuing as normal. In fact, it is accelerating, with new hires being made.
- “Rekt” put out a debunked article making many false claims about the Foundation. This article was retracted within 1-2 hours of publication.
Everything we do is driven by the notion that Fantom is not about one individual. It is a leading platform built by contributors, and for contributors that seeks faster, more cost effective, and a far more scalable blockchain.
Thank you again for your support.
