Evan Duffield, the founder of Dash, announced on April 18, 2017, that he was moving from chief executive of the Dash Core Project into a senior advisor role1. Ryan Taylor, Dash's director of finance, took the CEO title on April 18 as well. Taylor had worked at Dash since mid-2014, Finance Magnates reported, after earlier roles as a hedge fund analyst and an associate partner at McKinsey2.
Three CEO exits on the record in 2017
CEO exits CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2017: 3
- 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 2 |
| 2017 | 3 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2019 | 7 |
| 2020 | 9 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 11 |
Trading Venues & Brokerage led CEO exits on the whole record, with 17
CEO exits CryptoLately has verified on the whole record, by the sector of the company
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 17 |
| Layer 1s & Infrastructure | 13 |
| Bitcoin & Mining | 10 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 8 |
| Wallets & Consumer Apps | 6 |
| Stablecoins & Payments | 5 |
| Institutional Custody & Asset Management | 4 |
| Regulation & Enforcement | 3 |
The move
Dash's own announcement called the change a unanimous choice by Duffield and the Dash Core. The organization called the Dash Core an elected body that oversees Dash's development, marketing and growth1. It said the move left Dash's governance, voting and treasury model unchanged. Duffield framed his own exit as the end of a plan built over time. “Today's announcement has been in development for many months, and I am proud to have helped Dash become the extraordinary project it is today,” Duffield said. Daily operations and technology development had already moved to Taylor and chief technology officer Andy Freer months earlier, he added, pointing to a February 2017 software upgrade "developed and released without my hands-on involvement".
Taylor answered with a tribute of his own, carried in Finance Magnates' report of April 18, 2017. “Evan is one of the most gifted minds in blockchain and Fintech,” Taylor said. “He created something that will have a permanent and lasting impact on many people across the world in a rapidly evolving economy. The Dash Core team is committed to ensuring that we follow the grand vision Evan laid for Dash.”2
Why hand the title to a finance director over the chief technology officer who already shared daily duties? Duffield supplied his own answer. Dash set out, in his words, to avoid "any singular points of failure." A title tied to one founder's name worked against that goal1.
Dash Core before and after
Before the change, Duffield ran Dash as its founding chief executive, a role he had held since he started the project1. Taylor's new duties covered organizational growth, the project's vision and communications with Dash's partners and investors, the Dash Core's own release said. Duffield said he would stay on hand to advise Dash Core and its developers. He planned to turn his own attention to other projects meant to grow Dash's ecosystem.
What came next
FinTech Magazine still called Taylor the CEO more than three years later, reporting on May 16, 2020, that “Ryan Taylor, CEO of cryptocurrency platform Dash, has outlined the benefit of cryptocurrency in Venezuela.”3 The magazine said Dash had expanded there three years before. Taylor called cryptocurrency "critical" for "survival" amid Venezuela's hyperinflation, in an interview the magazine cited. He said Dash gave people a cash-like option "without the restrictions" of the country's banking system. The 2020 report used Taylor's old title alone. It left Duffield's advisory role out of the story.
Sources
- "Ryan Taylor named Dash Core CEO as founder Evan Duffield transitions to senior advisor role," Dash, April 18, 2017, https://www.dash.org/news/ryan-taylornameddashceo/
- Avi Mizrahi, "Ryan Taylor Takes Over as Dash CEO from Founder Evan Duffield," Finance Magnates, April 18, 2017, https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/ryan-taylor-takes-dash-ceo-founder-evan-duffield/
- "Dash CEO: cryptocurrency is vital in Venezuela," FinTech Magazine, May 16, 2020, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimgFBVV95cUxPeDZNTWRiTWdfQ0lPSUxzUlJHaWdFeEktbW16Xzk4cWFhZWZLTF9Ec2VlaF9wNTZSWFJ6UUpMZkx2eGNZWG1qeFpHLW03eDhKOVJWc1FYUllxUUx6bl9mcGdKVjJqTm9TSVhHdEI2X0xOeUhVakdtZkZuaENzZUVyXzRpb0M3QS1wbmY1MkE5bHpiemNJZ0hmcWV3?oc=5