cryptovest.com
Reality is starting to bite even in the space of virtual currencies. The Ethereum Classic (ETC) project might lose its key development firm, ETCDev, which officially announced the decision to cease its activities after it had failed to raise the funding necessary for its further operations.
On December 3, ETCDev acknowledged it had been through dire straits and was not able to finance itself anymore. As a result, the team could not continue the work under current circumstances and had to shut down. Igor Artamonov, ETCDEV's founder and CTO, posted the announcement on the company's official Twitter account, where he explained the reasons behind the move.
"As is publicly known we have struggled with funding our operation in the last few weeks. This was partially due to the market crash, combined with a cash crunch in the company.
We appealed to investors in the ecosystem as well as external to it. We also did the community fund, but in none of these cases were we successful in securing short-term financing," Artmanov stated.
Indeed, just the day before the announcement, on December 2, ETCDEV took a poll on Twitter to find out whether ETC community was willing to provide financial assistance to them. Unfortunately, 61% of more than a thousand respondents answered they would not donate money to help ETCDEV.
The news should come as no surprise given the current crypto bear market that has exacerbated the company's financial struggles. It has led to a dramatic drop in its market cap and eroded all the gains that Ethereum Classic (ETC) had enjoyed due to last year's crypto bull run. Also, ETC, a cryptocurrency that emerged as a result of Ethereum hardfork in 2016, benefitted much in August 2018 when it was added to Coinbase listing.
However, the combination of two factors - bear market and lack of funding - made the moody crypto community change its mind and forget its former darling.
With ETCDev shutting down, Ethereum Classic might be left without its main and best-known team among those working on ETC blockchain development. Specifically, ETCDEV was responsible for such core projects within the Ethereum Classic ecosystem as Classic Geth, Emerald Wallet, and SputnikVM.
Moreover, ETCDev's funding issues are typical for many other crypto projects suffering from heavy losses and losing their value amidst the prolonged market downturn. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that other teams might soon follow ETCDev's example and also close down their operations if they are not viable enough or not expert at prudent budgeting.