Blockstream Workers Supposedly Treating Themselves with Huge Bitcoin Salaries

The recovering crypto prices have once again entered a bull run, after a small decline in the past several days. Bitcoin is currently once more above the $8k mark, and its market dominance is currently secured. As a result, many are once again rushing to buy Bitcoin, as well as numerous altcoins.

But, the improved prices usually bring quite a bit of greed, which can be seen in a new report published on cashbleed.com. According to the report, it appears that Blockstream’s employees may have misused the investor fund for the purpose of enriching themselves. The funds are supposedly being used for the purpose of ‘effective bonuses,’ which the employees are receiving as a percentage of their payment. However, the issue is that these funds come in the form of Bitcoin (BTC).

According to the facility’s design, the startup’s employees buy Bitcoin at lower prices when compared to the coin’s market value. As mentioned, Bitcoin is currently above $8,000 per coin. On the other hand, the employees of the company are buying it for barely $350 per BTC. In other words, the company has organized a major scheme to siphon millions in BTC from the company to the private Bitcoin wallets of its employees.

Obviously, while Bitcoin trading is exploding, the greed accompanying it might in damage being done to the market, and particularly to Blockstream. It remains to be seen whether this news will result in the company’s death, but the situation certainly does not seem particularly good for the firm. If the conditions within the startup remain as they are right now, there will be no benefits for the startup’s investors.

Blockstream accusations continue to pile up

The company’s investor assets have an estimated worth of around $100 million, which was raised from various supporters. But, the firm decided to conduct fraud, instead of using the funds for a more noble purpose, such as innovation. Furthermore, this is not even the first time that the firm has been called out for unethical behavior.

Bitcoin.com’s David Shares, a well-known developer and writer, also accused the firm of dishonesty and manipulative behavior. In his blog post, he claims that there is no maintaining decentralization and improving liquidity at the same time. As a result, Blockstream has decided to give up on both and take the money for itself.

Shares add that the fact that Blockstream managed to raise $100 million from the public is impressive. However, the company does not inform its investors of the usage of the funds. As a result, they were able to siphon the funds and not answer to anyone in the process, which is unacceptable. Shares then urged the crypto community to react, and keep the company in check, as it does not seem to be capable of doing it itself.

David also mentioned that the company released its sidechain four years after achieving a public status in 2014. Meanwhile, their Liquid sidechain can only be properly used by private Bitcoin exchanges. Despite this, the company became a part of the Lightning Network development project, together with Lightning Labs and ACINQ.

Finally, Shares points out that the company is playing toxic and dirty games on social media as well. Even more than that, it gathers information of the Bitcoin community through spying. All of this comes in addition to its hiring system, which might even be interpreted as illegal.

Blockstream unlikely to survive the year

As for CashBleed, the firm’s report points out that these Bitcoin payouts may have trapped Blockstreams employees with nothing but monetary benefits alone. However, CashBleed also makes it quite clear that Blockstream’s employees are getting rewards they did not work for. The company may have raised a massive amount, but it also promised a lot in return — none of it was achieved as of yet, even after years of supposedly working hard.

The report concludes with a prediction that Blockstream is unlikely to survive the year, considering the fact that itis rapidly depleting its BTC reserves. All that it can do to survive now is to ask for even more money from the public. And, while trading Bitcoin is once again quite popular, it is highly unlikely that anyone would be willing to invest in such an unethical firm in the future.

Since the company does not intend to stop with its scheme, all investments in it would only be a waste of investors’ funds — funds which investors could use to buy Bitcoin and improve their own monetary situation right now.