Serial blockchain entrepreneur Dan Larimer has left Block.one, the company that raised $4 billion to build the software behind the EOS blockchain.
Larimer, who co-founded the company and had served as its chief technical officer since April 2017, announced the move on Block.one’s social network Voice.com on Sunday:
"I will continue on my mission to create free market, voluntary solutions for securing life, liberty, property, and justice for all. I do not know exactly what is next, but I am leaning toward building more censorship resistant technologies."
He said he left Block.one as of Dec. 31, 2020. The Virgnia-based technologist announced his boycott of Twitter yesterday, saying its “censorship has gotten out of control,” likely a reference to the company’s banning of U.S. President Donald Trump the previous day. He also hit out at Apple for its threatened, and since carried out, ban of conservative social media service Parler.
“Voice has a huge battle ahead and will need to adapt if it wants to escape the same kind of coerced censorship of its users,” he wrote. “We can no longer rely on these services. Voice is not immune from this censorship pressure. We are entering dark times.”
Block.one confirmed the departure, saying Larimer “left to pursue new personal projects.”
“I’m not alone in being grateful for the contributions Dan has made to date, and I look forward to seeing what he will do next,” Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer said in a statement.
Larimer founded BitShares alongside Charles Hoskinson (a co-founder of Ethereum) in 2013. Larimer later founded the Steem blockchain in 2016.
In 2018, Block.one raised over $4 billion in the largest initial coin offering (ICO) in history. As a result, the firm is sitting on a massive reserve of bitcoin. CEO Brendan Blumer recently announced on Twitter, “we have accumulated well beyond our previously announced 140,000 #BTC position.”
The price of EOS fell on the news of Larimer’s departure, dropping to as low as $3.01, before recovering slightly to $3.21, down 6.97% over the last 24 hours.
UPDATE (Jan. 10, 15:33 UTC): Adds Block.one response, background, EOS activity.