Many Couchsurfing members and volunteers recognized the importance of restructuring their organization as a decentralized network in 2006 after Casey Fenton damaged the website database and tried to walk away from the ruin, abandoning tens of thousands of members in the process, hundreds of whom were depending on the website for lodging as they traveled in foreign lands on a low budget.

Under pressure from around the world, and realizing that the global hospitality community would rebuild the organization with or without him, Casey agreed to restart the website with a new emphasis on community participation. Many committed volunteers joined the effort, mislead by Casey who, all the while, secretly re-consolidated his power, eventually pushing out anyone who threatened his control.