Ex-Bitmain Employee Arrested in China
November 8, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Chinese police arrested the former employee of Bitmain, Yang Zuoxing, who is now the head of Bitmain’s rival MicroBT, which manufactures WhatsMiner Bitcoin miners.
It was reported by The Block with reference to local media, which, in turn, refers to other miners and representatives of cryptocurrency exchanges.
Yang was allegedly taken into custody due to a lawsuit with Bitmain over intellectual property rights. More information on this subject is currently not available.
Yang was one of the engineers responsible for developing the leading Bitmain miners and left the company in June 2016 after being denied an equity stake in it. Soon after, he founded his company and received a lawsuit from Bitmain for patent infringement. Subsequently, a court in China canceled the Bitmain patent based on the fact that the chip described in it was used by a wide range of people.
According to The Block, Yang’s arrest may indicate a re-opening of the Bitmain-MicroBT case. Initially, Bitmain demanded damages $3.7 billion from MicroBT but subsequently reduced the amount of claims to $380,000.
Inside Bitmain itself, meanwhile, a struggle is going on between the co-founders.
Author: Marko Vidrih
