The bear has claimed more victims: blockchain and smart-contract platform Chia Network announced today that it has fired nearly 30 of its staff, at the time the company is making moves to go public in the US.
According to the post on the project's Twitter account, Chia has "eliminated 26 positions" across the Network."
It stated that,
"The Crypto Winter, industry skepticism, and banking crises have created a challenging funding environment. We’ve cut costs across the org, scaled back budgets, and faced a black swan event of our underwriter failing."
The project is still focused on creating sustainable teams and processes that will drive enterprise adoption on the Chia blockchain, it added.
To those impacted: We’re losing great people. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Chia and the ecosystem. 3/4
Commenters seem to be sympathetic, but many also argue that Chia may be too focused on the US and that it should spread its wings into other markets.
Others opined that it is not uncommon for a software company to over-hire when going for an initial public offering (IPO).
Meanwhile, some requested the team share more information.
Can you please elaborate on the event of “your underwriter failing”? What exactly happened, and what does this mean for the company? Thank you
Its FAQ page notes that Chia was incorporated in August 2017 to develop an improved blockchain and smart transaction platform.
"Called Proof of Space and Time, it was created by Bram Cohen, the best network protocol engineer alive and the inventor of BitTorrent," it states.
The company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this year to kick off the IPO process.
But this latest event may have delayed its listing further, following the baking
Read more on cryptonews.com