Dogecoin startup announces open source project, bids farewell to digital currency community

Recently, Josh Mohland, founder of micropayment startup dogetipbot, announced that it would open source its payment tools. The company raised $446,000 in November 2014, with investors including Blackbird Ventures.

According to CoinDesk, the company’s founder announced on his Facebook that he would “return” the dogetipbot project to the Bitcoin and Dogecoin communities. However, the tone of his statement seemed to imply dissatisfaction with community members.

Mohland wrote:

“I will open source the payment tool of dogetipbot and say goodbye to the digital currency community. I think leaving might be a good way to deal with the problem.”

Founded in 2014, the company is one of the few digital currency micropayment startups to receive outside investment, including Changetip and Zapchain, but dogetipbot is different from these companies in that it focuses on Dogecoin payments.

Mohland’s statement seemed to suggest that dogetipbot no longer had a need to profit from its early product, and that community support for the project also appeared to be in trouble.

In the statement, Mohland called integration with the existing financial system “more profitable and preferable” and he sees technology as a “solution in search of a problem.”

“Most of our users want cash in their hands, and they don’t like PayPal very much,” he told CoinDesk. “Bitcoin was not an option when we wanted to build a relationship with a bank.”

Mohland is currently working on another payments startup, Honeyledger, which is also aimed at online content creators, but don’t be fooled by its name; it is not a blockchain or distributed ledger project.

Mohland said:

“Honeyledger is a 100% traditional Fintech company that provides traditional Fintech products and has nothing to do with blockchain technology.”

He said Honeyledger aims to launch the API in the coming weeks.

Original text: http://www.coindesk.com/dogetipbot-open-source-creator-leaves-crypto/
By Pete Rizzo
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/dogetipbot-open-source)