Bobby Lee, CEO of BTCChina, and Brock Pierce will join the Bitcoin Foundation’s board of directors.
BTC China CEO, Bobby Lee, and venture capitalist, Brock Pierce, have taken places at the Bitcoin Foundation’s board of directors, after receiving the biggest number of votes from the organization’s industry members.
The election featured three candidates, including Bobby Lee, Brock Pierce and Vinny Lingham, CEO of mobile gift card provider Gyft. The results of the voting where the following, Mr. Lee got the highest number of 79%, Pierce received 65% approval and Lingham scored 63%.
Lee and Pierce have joined a board that already includes such members as executive director Jon Matonis, bitcoin chief scientist Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Magazine’s Elizabeth Ploshavand Ribbit Capital’s Micky Malka, with founder and chairman Peter Vessenes.
This announcement follows the results of a first round of voting to fill two vacant seats, which ended with none of the original 15 candidates gathering enough votes to secure the position.
These two seats on the Bitcoin Foundation’s board of directors have been unoccupied since former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles left their posts earlier this year.
China’s Outspoken CEO
According to the social media, Lee has been one of the most outspoken character from China’s bitcoin community globally, appearing in popular media outlets such as Businessweek and Wired.
Lee’s company is one of the first Chinese bitcoin exchanges and the world’s most active exchange by November last year, though it has faced competition from other exchanges such as Huobi and currently the country’s largest digital currency exchange OKcoin.
The CEO’s appointment happens at the same time when the Bitcoin Foundation is putting an emphasis on strengthening the recognition of bitcoin internationally, most recently announcing that Mexico’s Fundación Satoshi Nakamoto had officially gained accreditation as its latest official affiliate chapter.
Serial Entrepreneur
A former child movie star Brock Pierce has recently gained popularity in the investment world, where he leads a successful bitcoin-focused AngelListsyndicate.
Moreover, Pierce has helped found GoCoin, ExpressCoin, KnCMiner and Robocoin Asia, and in addition launched a plan to save the now-bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.
The plan of Mt. Gox’s resuscitation went past major obstacle yesterday when it finally received a nod of approval from a US court.
Moreover, it is confirmed that former exchange users would be given equity in a new Mt. Gox that would provide compensation for money lost in the original exchange’s bankcruptsy.
“Bitcoin is the biggest technology innovation since the Internet,” said Mr. Pierce at TechZulu’s 2014 Startup Forecast . The only question: “is that future right now, or is it 10 years from now?” To profit from Bitcoin “market timing is critical.”
next