Bitmain finally stopped, Wu Jihan turned and left with love
Everyone is happy, last night, Jihan Wu, the co-founder of Bitcoin Mainland, announced a settlement with another Lianchuang Zhan Ketuan in a unique way of encrypted letters.
So far, the two-year infighting of the leading cryptocurrency miner has finally come to an end.
As spectators, we finally no longer have to squat in the melon fields and be surprised by their fighting methods, which is great;
As miners, they don’t have to worry about the company’s main body being unknown, the owner’s name is unknown, the payment is made to the wrong bank account, and the mining machine cannot be delivered on time, which is great;
As Bitmain employees, they don’t have to be caught in the dilemma between the two bosses’ confrontation orders, and they don’t have to worry about various situations such as standing in line, changing contracts, and being suddenly laid off. They only need to do business with peace of mind, receive high salaries, and wait for the listing, which is great;
As the two bosses, they don’t have to worry about sleeping or eating, they don’t have to worry about not being able to get in after leaving the company, they lose their authority when they go on a business trip, and they fly with a license. It's good to pinch each other in secret, and wait, wait, etc.;
As Bitmain investors, they no longer have to worry about exiting, but also worry about such a large post-investment project (such as attending the shareholder meetings held by both parties and mediating), which is great...
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Wu Jihan quit peacefully, is it a loss or a gain?
Leaving is as dramatic as "The Return of the King".
In October 2019, Wu Jihan returned with a "coup" to replace the Beijing Bitmain legal person and dismiss Ketuan Zhan.
Because of his profound experience in the encryption industry, he was the Chinese translator of the Bitcoin white paper and an early preacher. Later, he built the Bitcoin mining machine empire and supported the independence of BCH, the prince of Bitcoin. Therefore, Jihan Wu The company is well-connected both inside and outside, and that "coup" was also hailed as "the return of the king".
However, the ensuing infighting and fighting each other in the air made the image of the two parties much compromised.
The way Wu Jihan chose to leave this time was as unusual as ever.
On January 26, Jihan Wu posted an encrypted letter on Twitter, and after it was decrypted by Igor Igamberdiev, people knew the outcome of this confrontation.
In the letter,Jihan Wu announced that the differences between Ketuan Zhan and him had been resolved in an "amicable" and "constructive" manner. According to the agreement between the two parties, Ketuan Zhan purchased nearly half of the shares of Bitmain held by Wu Jihan and a group of founding shareholders at a price of US$600 million. In return, he has resigned as CEO and chairman of Bitmain today.
In order to complete the share purchase, Zhan Ketuan obtained a loan of 400 million US dollars from Bitmain, and at the same time promised to raise another 200 million US dollars from outside the group.
The resignation letter also mentioned,As of January 25, Bitmain had $327 million in fiat currency, with a short-term liquidity gap of $92 million.Bitmain’s financial situation is sound and healthy, and the loan provided to Ketuan Zhan will not have any negative impact on the sustainability of Bitmain’s operations.
According to the solution reached,Bit Deer and mines in the United States and Norway are separated from Bitmain. Wu Jihan will serve as the chairman of Bit Deer, and Matt Kong will serve as CEO of Bit Deer. Antpool (ant pool) will soon be split into an independent company led by Zhan Ketuan.
Through the agreement mentioned above, Wu Jihan said that Bitmain's business model will be very intuitive, and the road to IPO will be smoother. Under this agreement, in order to comply with the valuation adjustment, the number of shares in the hands of investors in the B round and B+ round has also tripled, and the possibility of making a profit on their investment is more clear.
From now until Bitmain’s listing, Bitmain’s board of directors will consist of 5 people, Ketuan Zhan has the right to appoint 3 of them, and Jihan Wu has the right to appoint the other 2. For the benefit of Bitmain, it has invited two colleagues - Zhu Xiang and Liu Jianchun.
Zhu Xiang is one of the founding members of Bitmain, and he led the design of the hardware of the most important mining machines S1 and S19 for Bitmain. Liu Jianchun has been the chief financial officer and CFO of Bitmain for the past five years. These two board members will act in the interests of Bitmain as a whole, not individual shareholders.
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Ketuan Zhan and Jihan Wu at the annual meeting, the picture comes from the Internet
Wu Jihan wrote at the end of the letter: "The conclusion of today's agreement undoubtedly means that Bitmain will turn a new page. As the co-founder of Bitmain, I have enjoyed the 2815-day journey and gained many customers. The selfless help and support of colleagues, friends and investors, and at the same time, the most sincere blessings to Zhan Ketuan and Bitmain led by him.”
According to Wu Shuo’s blockchain observation, Wu Jihan is suspected of using double signatures at the beginning and end of his farewell letter to pay tribute to Bitcoin’s double sha256 algorithm:
“—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–Hash: SHA512”
“END PGP SIGNED MESSAGE”
I think, just like Musk engraved "Of Course I Still Love You" on the rocket recovery boat, Jihan Wu is expressing his nostalgia and deep love for Bitcoin and the mining industry, as well as the company he has been fighting for for many years. like.
In the final analysis, did Wu Jihan win or lose?
According to Bitmain’s prospectus (2018.09), Ketuan Zhan holds 36% of Bitmain’s shares and is the largest shareholder, followed by Wu Jihan with a shareholding ratio of 25.25%. There are also 4 shareholders including Ge Yuesheng, plus Wu Jihan 5 people accounted for 40.59% of the shares.
This time Wu Jihan and some shareholders sold half of the shares, and the proportion of the shares sold is likely to be in the range of 15%-20%.According to the Hurun rankings, Bitmain’s current valuation is between 4 billion and 5 billion US dollars, Some people have predicted before that if Ketuan Zhan wants to acquire Wu Jihan's shares, he needs to prepare at least 1 billion US dollars.
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A brief review, such a business war case can be described as a unique
"Today, have you been robbed of your official seal and business license?" It can be described as the two major corporate scandals that have been hotly discussed in the business world in 2019.
The picture below shows the complete context of Wu Zhan's struggle for control of the company sorted out by Odaily (as of June 2020, when Ketuan Zhan returned to the company).
After Ketuan Zhan returned, he began to control the company's Shenzhen production line, while Wu Jihan held the company's financial power, and there was a stalemate. The former had no money to place an order to produce mining machines, and the latter could not supply mining machines after receiving the payment.
Since then, the two parties have reached a settlement on the resumption of production, allowing Bitmain's production line to be maintained.
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What will the spin-off agreement bring to Bitmain and the mining industry?
For Bitmain, it is a good thing for the company to go public and investors to withdraw. If the delay continues, the company may face huge gambling compensation, and more importantly, it will lose the confidence of customers and employees, and thus lose the market. It took half a year for this reconciliation to be finally settled, and one can imagine how involved it is.
After this reconciliation, how will Ketuan Zhan manage the company?
I think that those problems that Wu Jihan accused him of, and where there were really problems, after this battle, Ketuan Zhan will make adjustments to protect the hard-won fruits of victory.
And what about Wu Jihan? In addition to Bit Deer, it is very likely that as some insiders have revealed, Wu Jihan will get Bitmain's overseas mines and BTC.COM mining pool. There is also Matrixport, an encrypted financial platform that was spun off in early 2019.
For the mining industry, Bitmain's reorganization and full production are undoubtedly good news.
It is understood that due to the continuous skyrocketing of currency prices, the mining machine orders of mainstream mining machine manufacturers have been set to August-September. The tight supply of upstream chips is a common problem faced by manufacturers. The trust among chip manufacturers may also increase; the company can also concentrate on the research and development of next-generation and next-generation cutting-edge chips.
For competitors, the awakening of Bitmain, a lion delayed by internal strife, may be a big challenge.
I hope that in a year’s time we can see that Bitmain, the overlord of mining machines that has risen at an astonishing speed, has really come back.
