On Monday, November 25th, Spotcoin co-founder, Andrew Thornhill, resigned from his role with the Georgia-based project. Spotcoin, who is aiming to build a fiat and digital currency exchange and payment services platform, conducted its public token sale in Q4 2018 and raised the equivalent of US $14.6 million. Thornhill was among four co-founders who formulated Spotcoin in 2016. Only one co-founder, Guram Rukhadze, now remains on the team.
Thornhill served as a Telegram administrator (admin) from the time of Spotcoin’s public token sale through Q3 2019. As a Telegram admin, Thornhill was a primary distributor of information, reports, and updates about the Spotcoin project.
In August 2019, Thornhill stated he was to transition out of a Telegram admin role and hire an admin staff, citing “progress should have been much faster and the promise of updates much much less.” The following month, Telegram community admin, Tatia, announced, “after upcoming Monday, September 9th, Andrew will not be involved in this channel as he is working on several projects currently.”
On October 19th, 2019, Thornhill stated on Telegram, “I am not part of the exec team. The admins get reports directly from Spotcoin. I just help with vision and ambassadorship. I am not aware of release timelines”
In his resignation announcement, Thornhill said:
As a founder I have happily watched Spotcoin grow from an idea on my balcony to an active trading company, to a full-fledged ICO and more. In the past year my role within Spotcoin has been limited and I have this week agreed with the directors of the company that the time is right for me to move on.
Delays in production
In the time since Spotcoin’s token sale, the team has met with various delays in the release of its planned products and services: a physical mining facility, OTC marketplace, and a digital asset exchange. In its initial roadmap, Spotcoin had estimated its mining facility to be built, inspected, and commissioned by October 2018, the OTC marketplace would launch in Q1 2019, and the digital asset exchange would launch in Q3 2019.
In October 2018, Spotcoin had announced it was launching its digital asset exchange earlier than expected, which was tentatively planned to open as early as mid-December of 2018; three quarters ahead of schedule. Then CEO, Timothy Gick said, “The exchange is central to our success. We want everyone to have access to digital currencies and open up opportunity. The early launch proves we are keeping our promises and living up to our own high standards.”
Despite the announcement, the exchange is still yet to be released. On February 26th, 2019, Thornhill stated in a Telegram update, “We are waiting on our partner to post the pics and beta version of the exchange. It should be less than 2 weeks to have the beta version BUT it will be 1-2 months to enable NEO token trading.”
On March 14th, 2019, he went on to say, “technically, the exchange is working now – screenshots will likely be released next week.”
June 30th, 2019, Thornhill said the exchange would be ready in “September, with testing happening now through then.” At the time of press, the Spotcoin exchange has not launched, nor have screenshots of the platform been shared with community members.
Similar issues have surrounded the release of the mining facility and the OTC marketplace. On March 14th Spotcoin held an AMA in which current CEO, Dennis Spencer, dictated answers to by shared by Thornhill on Telegram. The development of the mining facility was reported to be “in progress” and that “the first 2mW should be online by the Summer 2019 – or somewhere around that.”
The latest update about the mining facility came from Thornhill in June 2019, when he stated the mining facility is “continually being developed and [the team was] executing according to our internal schedule.”
In the same March 14th AMA, the team stated that its OTC marketplace, Concierge OTC, would be “probably” be ready in Q2 2019. In a June 30th, 2019 update, Thornhill said, “Spotcoin has partnered with a top tier bank in North America and a top tier bank in Europe to roll out a proprietary fiat currency and digital currency escrow system for our OTC. We hope to roll out features of this OTC in July or August. With a full system readiness in September.”
On October 10th, 2019, Tatia stated the OTC “platform and bank accounts are ready, service is undergoing through testing now and we will make an official announcement when it’s officially open.”
At the time of press, neither the mining facility or the Concierge OTC service have been released.
Looking forward
On September 30th, Tatia stated the teams primary focus is now on the OTC platform as “market dynamic has proven that Concierge service is of utmost importance for our customers.” She went on to state that the Concierge OTC platform is ready, was undergoing testing now, and that Spotcoin will make an official announcement when the platform is live.
About The Author: Dylan Grabowski
Dylan is a reformed urban planner with a passion for covering the Neo ecosystem. His objective as a writer for Neo News Today is to report news in an objective, fact-based, non-sensational manner. When not behind a computer screen, he can be found in the mountains rock climbing. Find Dylan on Twitter (@GrabowskiDylan).
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