BitTorrent’s Employees Already Leaving, After Tron’s Acquisition In June

BitTorrent’s employees have reportedly started leaving the company after its recent acquisition by TRON, a blockchain-based digital content entertainment platform.

Bram Cohen, a well-known computer programmer and creator of BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol, recently left BitTorrent Inc. Although neither Cohen nor TRON have officially said anything about why he resigned, the BitTorrent founder had earlier reflected that there are many problems with the way cryptocurrency networks are implemented.

BitTorrent Founder Leaves

According to Cohen, the process of mining digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum is very inefficient. Moreover, the software architect appears to have been following the ongoing development of the Bitcoin protocol since 2011. He has also claimed that bitcoin is “so busted at a higher layer”, meaning that its source code has not been written properly.

While it’s still not clear exactly why Cohen left BitTorrent, several other employees of the company have also left after Justin Sun’s TRON network acquired the P2P file-sharing platform in June. Sources currently working closely with both BitTorrent and TRON have said that some of the employees resigned while others may have been dismissed.

Questionable Leadership, Marketing Strategy

Notably, many members of the crypto community have criticized Tron’s leadership by noting that their aggressive marketing strategy via social media can be misleading at times. This is one of main reasons why several BitTorrent employees have left, according to inside sources.

As many crypto enthusiasts may have observed, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the TRON platform, with its founder Justin Sun constantly tweeting updates regarding its ongoing development and new partnership announcements. Sources claim that this type of leadership has reportedly made BitTorrent employees feel uncomfortable working with the company.

The work environment at BitTorrent before Tron’s acquisition was reportedly quite relaxed, however, the new reports suggest that workers at the San Francisco-based company felt pressured by the new management.

It also appears that Tron is looking to aggressively expand BitTorrent’s operations as there are currently around 30 new positions (advertised on LinkedIn) for which the company is hiring. BitTorrent, Inc. wants to employ more product marketing managers and directors, software engineers, technical writers, and accounting managers.

Tron’s Controversial “Supernodes”

While BitTorrent’s Tron-led management seems to be trying to recruit more people, the reports suggest that its current staff members do not approve of many decisions taken by its new leaders after the acquisition.

In particular, BitTorrent’s employees are reportedly uncomfortable with how Tron has chosen to elect its “supernodes”, which are appointed to validate transactions on TRON’s Delegated proof-of-work (DPoS) based blockchain network. There are a total of 27 elected nodes for the TRON platform with Justin Sun controlling one and Tron controlling four under the names µTorrent, Raybo, Peiwo, and BitTorrent.

Despite inside sources claiming that BitTorrent’s staff members are uncomfortable working with Tron’s leadership team, a Tron spokesperson told Coindesk that the cryptocurrency platform is:

committed to the BitTorrent product and user community. We have been growing rapidly since the acquisition, as one family, to meet our vision for a decentralized future.