Ned Scott:
Given the weakness of the cryptocurrency market, the fiat returns on our automated selling of STEEM diminishing, and the growing costs of running full Steem nodes, we have been forced to layoff close to 70% of the team. The remainder of the team is staying on to focus primarily on reducing the costs of the infrastructure running steemit.com and our public APIs, and ensuring that the community can remain informed of developments.
I really enjoyed using Steemit last year, but the inability to specify canonical URLs for blog posts ultimately put me off. I still think Steemit is the only blockchain-based social platform that has managed to a decent user base and following, so this development is very unfortunate. My thoughts below.
- It’s silly to blame the layoffs on the current bear market instead of the real reason — poor treasury management. It’s clear that Steemit, Inc. chose to speculate in a high-volatility market with investor funds instead of cashing out to fiat in accordance with a real and reasonable financial plan.
- Accounting for inflation, Steemit auto-mined and sold ~80% of the token supply since its inception. Is there a detailed financial report that shows where all of this money went? If so, Steemit, Inc. should consider making it publicly available. If not, then why not?
- Perhaps it’s time for Ned Scott, who still owns ~$750,000 worth of STEEM, to step down as CEO and move into an advisory position. His leadership has been questioned by many in the community, and he doesn’t seem equipped with the knowledge and experience to bring Steemit, Inc. out of this financial mess.