Ross Nicoll, a core developer of the Dogecoin Foundation, announced that he is stepping away from the meme cryptocurrency project and will remain an advisor, citing “overwhelming” stress and a potential conflict of interest. For the uninitiated, the Dogecoin Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to support the development of the meme coin and has launched its first-ever road map detailing a number of new projects.
It should be noted that Nicoll, also works as a full time employee for another company, the name of which is currently unknown. According to Nicoll, his departure is not absolute and there’s “further complication” as his employer is moving into the blockchain space, which could stoke the risk of conflict of interest if he were to remain as director of the Dogecoin Foundation. “I’m handing over everything I can to the Dogecoin Foundation. I will be remaining as an advisor to the Foundation, to enable transition,” he wrote in a blog post.
The chief developer also wrote about the number of threats that Dogecoin Foundation continues to face. In 2021, a number of parties were registering trademarks for Dogecoin, presumably to claim “they” were Dogecoin. “External parties we had never heard of managed to get articles published which referred to them as Dogecoin developers. In the summer of 2021, there was a potential lawsuit against the developers from someone who claimed we were responsible for their funds,” Nicoll said, adding that he is not in the right mindset to steer Dogecoin into the next phase.
Just few week ago Billy Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin had asked supporters to “stay cool” amid the cryptocurrency failing to gain any significant traction since January 2022. In a tweet, Markus warned the members of the meme-coin community against getting “crazy, toxic, attacky, spammy,” and said that could devalue the brand.
Dogecoin was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a faster but “fun” alternative to Bitcoin. It was started as a satire on the numerous fraud crypto coins that had sprung up at the time, and takes its name and logo from a Shiba Inu meme that was viral several years ago.
“Doge” also has an ardent supporter in Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who frequently tweets have added to the digital token’s mania. Musk had once changed his Twitter bio to “Former CEO of Dogecoin.” Other celebrities, including rapper Snoop Dogg and rock musician Gene Simmons, have also promoted it on social media.
