Tron's BitTorrent Acquisition Triggers String of Employee Exits

At least five employees have left BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer networking pioneer, following its June acquisition by Justin Sun, the founder of the controversial blockchain protocol Tron, CoinDesk has learned.

According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the acquisition and company operations, the departures were related to concerns about the acquisition, as well as the direction proposed for the company by Tron leadership.

Sun, a former Ripple representative, is best known for founding the Tron project in 2017, which aims to decentralize the internet and boasts controversial miner Bitmain as a backer.

Tron completed a $70 million ICO in 2017, but later returned funds collected from Chinese investors after China banned the fundraising method.

Others suggested Sun acquired the company with the hope of lending credibility to Tron - something it has been accused of lacking in the past.

More specifically, last year Tron was accused of failing to properly attribute code that it incorporated into its protocol.

"Tron 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."

The approximately 49-person company is hiring for at least 30 positions ranging from software engineers to recruiters, LinkedIn shows, and employees fear that the expansion Sun hopes to achieve will compromise the company's working culture, which sources described as more relaxed prior to the acquisition.

Out of 27 total elected nodes, Justin Sun controls one and Tron controls four, though the nodes are named after different entities, specifically, BitTorrent, uTorrent, Peiwo and Raybo.

The Tron acquisition marks the latest chapter for BitTorrent, which has undergone multiple personnel shake-ups in recent years.