Operator of the world’s top bitcoin mining pool, Bitmain, has filed lawsuits against three former employees and current co-founders of the rival mining pool, Poolin, for breach of contract.
Bitmain is suing the founders of Poolin, the seventh largest bitcoin mining pool by hash rate, for $4.3 million in damages as a result of these founders allegedly violating a noncompete agreement. Bitmain argues that the employees’ departure and their creation of a competing mining pool resulted in significant losses for the company. On the other hand, Poolin argues that the contract in question is no longer applicable because it was invalidated after Bitmain failed to compensate them on time.
There are reportedly six pending lawsuits in the Beijing Haidian District court all regarding this dispute. Three came from the co-founders of Poolin — CEO Zhibiao Pan, COO Fa Zhu, and CTO Tianzhao Li — who preemptively sued Bitmain in an effort to be released from the non-compete agreement.
In response, Bitmain countersued each of them and requested that the court order Poolin’s founders to compensate it for losses stemming from the rivalry and to continue honoring the noncompete agreement.
The dispute has been kept quiet for some time, but a court hearing video released on April 30, 2019, that shows discussions between Pan and Bitmain’s representatives has now become available. It indicates that Pan signed a contract that promised him a compensation of $2,780 per month for 24 months in return for not operating a competing mining pool. Any agreed-upon details for Zhu and Li under their own contracts remain unclear.
The Launch of Poolin
When Poolin launched in November 2017, it was a mining pool for several cryptocurrencies. Its bitcoin
