Five days after the 12 members of the Aragon team left, the company’s CEO Jorge Izquierdo also announced his resignation.
Original title: “Aragon team collapsed and accused the association of financial opacity”
Written by: JX kin
On January 12, Aragon One CEO Jorge Izquierdo announced his resignation.
The company is the parent company of the blockchain project Aragon. The introduction information shows that it is a “blockchain enterprise that provides autonomous (DAO) solutions for online companies and decentralized organizations”.
Regarding the reasons for leaving, Jorge Izquierdo said that he was dissatisfied with the monopoly of the Aragon Association and the lack of transparency in governance and financial management.
As early as January 7, the Aragon team announced that 12 people had left the team, including John Light, who was responsible for the autonomous business of the project. He published an open letter on Githup, requesting the Aragon Association to disclose its financials and meeting minutes for outside supervision. In addition, he also called for ANT (Aragon Network Token) holders to participate in community governance.
According to overseas media reports, on December 15 and 22 last year, the Aragon Association sold 520 million ETH, which was partially exchanged for USDT. These funds were the funds raised by the project’s ICO in 2017. According to the official explanation, selling ETH assets is to achieve a better investment portfolio.
As a result, the Aragon Association was sold out for less than a month, and ETH rose to a maximum of $1349. The “better portfolio” did not seem to materialize, and the Aragon Association lost money on ETH.
The Aragon Association, which advocates decentralized autonomy, was eventually accused by members of the parent company of bad governance and opaque finances, adding irony to the organization of the DAO project. After the core staff resigned from the team one after another, some insiders ridiculed that Aragon is “DAO not DAO”.
CEO and more than 10 people left the team dissatisfied with the lack of financial transparency
“I resigned from the position of CEO of Aragon One. I feel sorry for the problems that have occurred in the team. Considering that our proposal will not be implemented, I think I cannot continue to do better.” On January 12, Jorge Izquierdo posted a resignation statement on Twitter.
Jorge Izquierdo issues resignation statement
According to public information, Aragon is a project launched in 2016 to create a blockchain-based digital jurisdiction for online companies, especially decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Aragon One is the main operator behind Aragon Network (ANT) and the recipient of Aragon’s DAO Association (AA) grant.
Jorge Izquierdo explained that after months of busy work, he took a two-week break under the advice of a doctor. During his departure, the Aragon Association made a series of decisions (mainly related to management), “I don’t know how these decisions will be implemented, and I do not agree with these decisions.”
After the CEO resigned, Aragon One’s executive director, two chief legal officers and co-founders joined the board of directors.
According to its co-founder Luis Cuende, the biggest disagreement for CEO resignation lies in the governance of the association, especially the board of directors.
The disagreement did not occur in the past two days. As early as a week ago, on January 7, 12 team members announced their resignation due to the opaque financial management. Among them, John Light, who is mainly responsible for the governance of the Aragon community, published an open letter on Githup before leaving his job. He said, “I no longer understand where I used to work, and I believe it no longer reflects my values.”
This open letter revealed a message that the financial transparency of the Aragon Association is insufficient.
In an open letter, John Light stated that the Aragon Association used to have a reputation for transparency, but recently it began to lack publicity. He asked the Aragon Association to disclose all meeting minutes and financial reports for public review. In addition, he also proposed to allow ANT holders and contributors to participate more in the governance of the association.
According to foreign media reports, on December 15 and December 22 last year, of the ETH raised by the Aragon Association through ICO in 2017, about 52,000 ETH went to the exchange, and some were converted into USDT.
Regarding the whereabouts of this fundraising, Izquierdo confirmed that these accounts are controlled by a multi-signature wallet jointly held by him and co-founder Cuende, but the association recently converted about 52,000 ETH into stable assets (mainly USDT) in order to make the project Diversified investment portfolios.
According to the non-trumpet account, as of 3 pm on January 13, ANT temporarily reported $3.1, a 24-hour decline of 6%, and a decline of 11% in the past 7 days. From the perspective of currency price trends, ANT has basically maintained linkage with mainstream currencies such as BTC, and has not fallen sharply due to the team’s resignation issue.
Aragon Association sells ETH and makes 30 million dollars less
In December last year, the price of Bitcoin hit record highs one after another. The OKEx market shows that on December 31, Bitcoin rose to a maximum of 29,300 US dollars. Driven by Bitcoin, mainstream currencies such as ETH and LTC also started to rise. On December 31, ETH rose to a maximum of US$758.
On December 15 and 22 when the Aragon Association sold ETH, the highest ETH quotes on that day were $597 and $634, respectively. If calculated at the price of $634, 52,000 ETH can be exchanged for approximately $32.96 million.
ETH rose to a maximum of US$1349 on January 10 this year. At this price, the value of ETH sold by the Aragon Association is approximately US$70.14 million.
Some people in the industry ridiculed that more than 10 people in the team left, probably because they were dissatisfied with the association’s early selling of coins. On January 7th, on the day that 12 people including John Light left their jobs, the highest ETH quoted price was $1250. Looking at it this way, the Aragon Association sold the foundation ETH and actually lost money, at least 30 million US dollars less.
In a foreign media report, Jorge Izquierdo said in another statement, “Now I just want to say, I express my deepest respect to all the members of the Aragon One team who decided to keep. You are Argon people, but your losses There is no substitute.”
Public information shows that in May 2017, Aragon raised ETH worth approximately US$25 million in an ICO. At that time, the price of ETH was about 150 US dollars. If calculated at this price, Aragon raised about 166,000 ETH. In addition, the Aragon team also conducted two rounds of private fundraising with venture companies Draper Associates and Placeholder Ventures, raising approximately US$850,000.
In addition to the sale of the association ETH, Aragon’s recent major changes are mainly the acquisition of Dvote Labs OU, the parent company of the blockchain voting application Vocdoni in December last year.
Unlike Year.Finance’s agreement to aggregate SuShi, Aragon’s acquisition of Dvote Labs OU is an equity acquisition. However, Joan Arús, the chief financial officer of the acquired application, revealed in an interview that Vodcdi team members received ANT from Aragon, but the specific amount was not announced.
There are also rumors outside that the resignation of core team members may be related to the differences in the association’s leading acquisition.
However, both John Light and Jorge Izquierdo, who have resigned, said that the acquisition was not the reason for their resignation. “On the contrary, I tried my best to promote the change of the association so that the team would not leave, but these attempts were ignored. .” Jorge Izquierdo explained in a public interview.
Aragon, which provided the DAO solution, had differences in the governance of the association itself, causing more than 10 people, including the CEO, to leave the team.
At present, what can be seen from public information is that the team’s differences are mainly in financial management. In the rising market, the association’s asset management strategy runs counter to the currency price trend, resulting in damage to the assets owned by the project.
In the capital market, large fluctuations in asset prices will not only make futures investors liquidate their positions, they can also cause a team to split up. And Aragon was criticized by the core team for financial opacity, which also added irony to the company that originally provided decentralized governance solutions.
