By On 25th September, author of ProgPoW Ethereum upgrade, Kristy-Leigh Minehan, announced that she would be stepping down as CTO of Core Scientific.
Conflict of interest has been cited as the cause for her stepping down. Kristy tweeted that she acknowledged the importance of ProgPoW in the transition of ETH to ETH 2.0 and thought it best to step down from her position and thus to remove potential conflict.
Programmatic Proof of work (ProgPow)
Ethereum’s upgrade, programmatic proof of work (ProgPoW), is scheduled to be implemented after the Istanbul hard fork, to lessen the influence of expensive miners and in turn favour the cheap and more democratic miners.
Initially, ProgPoW was intended to be part of the Istanbul hard fork, but delays in audits caused it to be moved to the Berlin upgrade coming after the Istanbul upgrade.
Kristy’s position at Core Scientific, a mining and AI infrastructure provider, puts her in a difficult position since NVIDIA with Core Scientific had brokered several GPU partnerships. However, she has vehemently denied engaging in any misconduct.
ProgPoW will further decentralize Ethereum helping Ethereum separate from the large-scale miners. It will also prevent hardware manufacturers from gaining too much influence over the network.
Kristy Minehan steps down voluntarily
In her statement on Twitter, Kristy has further stated that she was ready to assist the community in finding the answers that surround ProgPoW. She further thanked the Core Scientific team for supporting her in her decision. However, when asked for a comment she said she was busy but would follow up later.
Matthew Bishop, core Scientific Chief Administrative Officer, stated that Kristy’s decision to step down was entirely her choice.
Kristy Minehan plans to dedicate herself to ProgPow fully and ensure it is successful, especially during these crucial moments of adoption.
Kristy’s Recent Un-invitation to ETC Summit
Minehan has been on the news recently having been uninvited to the ETC summit to speak. Bob Summers, the executive Director at ETC Cooperative cited connections between her (Minehan) with Craig Wright, Calvin Ayre and Core Scientific as the reason for the invitation withdrawal. That’s because Core Scientifics’ CEO together with Craig Wright and Jimmy Nguyen are Squire mining advisors.
The crypto community has hailed Minehan’s decision as a great one that shows true leadership and dedication. While some still think her connection with the conflicting parties run deep and nothing she can do to untarnished her professional image.
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