Trouble May be Brewing in IOTA, Founder Says the Project Cannot be held Hostage

David Sonstebo is clear that IOTA Foundation cannot be single-handedly held hostage.

This comes after one of the former IOTA Board members, Sergey Invancheglo, going by the handle CFB, complained on Twitter that David has refused to release his mIOTAs, and for this he will be contacting his lawyers, subsequently taking legal action against David of whom he has accused of embezzlement.

Release my mIOTAs

On Twitter, Sergey posted:

“I notify the IOTA community that I no longer work with David Sonstebo and am contacting my lawyers to get my 25 Ti from him. He refuses to transfer the iotas to make me act for his own benefit and against mine.”

I notify the #IOTA community that I no longer work with David Sønstebø and am contacting my lawyers to get my 25 Ti from him. He refuses to transfer the iotas to make me act for his own benefit and against mine.

— Come-from-Beyond (@c___f___b) February 2, 2020

At the center of their dispute is 25 million mIOTAs worth over $7.7 million at spot rates.

Sergey and David Co-founded JINN

In a rebuttal, David now says it is disheartening for Sergey, who have been his partner for six years, to develop cold feet, and renege on an earlier collective agreement in the last minute.

A round of applause for this man.
????????????@DavidSonstebo #IOTA #IOTASTRONG pic.twitter.com/SejOHITuEb

— IOTA_FUTURE (@_velaroja) February 2, 2020

The publicized division between the two leaders seem to originate from the questions around Jinn, a distributed hardware project, that preceded the IOTA project. Both of them founded the project.

Sergey refused all progress made by the IOTA Foundation

David argues that despite Sergey leaving the IOTA foundation almost a year ago, he has refused all progress made by the foundation.

Presently, the foundation is working on implementing a solution that would see IOTA function without a central coordinator, the Coordicide. That’s on top of Chrysalis, a vital development stage that precedes the elimination of the coordinator.

David says that Sergey was tasked in leading alternative solutions to these two but failed to offer better performing solutions and instead chose to quit.

“Everyone Calm down. After almost a year after CFB departed from IOTA Foundation and sold all his IOTAs to build Paracosm, we finally decide last week to part ways amicably and professionally. Why? Because he refuses all progress made by the IOTA Foundation (Chrysalis and Coordicide). I single handedly elected him to the board of the IOTA foundation to lead the development of the COO-less IOTA architecture.”

“He was given carte blanche to execute on his promises to prove that he had a better performing solution. We all know this failed and as a consequence, he elected to quit the IOTA foundation while still insisting he would have a last say (which means no Chrysalis and Coordicide).”

pic.twitter.com/7SwnUatRhW

— Philipp Rosenfeld (@BaboleroOne) February 2, 2020