Why did Wu Jihan resign as the legal representative of Bitmain?

According to Tianyancha data, Bitmain's operating entity, Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd., has undergone industrial and commercial changes. Bitmain co-founder Wu Jihan has resigned as legal representative and will be replaced by CFO Liu Luyao.

On October 28, 2019, Bitmain also underwent a change in senior management. The former Bitmain chairman, Micree Zhan, withdrew as the legal representative and manager, and was replaced by Jihan Wu.

According to Jiemian News, on October 29, 2019, Bitmain founder Jihan Wu sent an email to company employees saying that he would remove Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, effective immediately. "No Bitmain employee shall execute Zhan Ketuan's instructions or attend meetings convened by Zhan Ketuan. If there is any violation, the company will consider terminating the labor contract depending on the severity of the circumstances; if the company's economic interests are damaged, the company will pursue civil or criminal liability in accordance with the law." Prior to this, due to strong disagreements on whether to develop the AI ​​chip business, Jihan Wu and Zhan Ketuan had already peacefully separated in the first half of the year, and Jihan Wu had already left Bitmain's management.

A person familiar with Bitmain analyzed to Interface News why Wu Jihan, who has already faded out of Bitmain's management, issued a statement at this time to "kick out" Zhan Ketuan. "This is a counterattack," because Zhan Ketuan's behavior in the company has harmed the interests of all shareholders, especially his insistence on pursuing AI chip business and not listening to the opinions of Wu Jihan and other shareholders.

Bitmain is laying off employees again, is Jihan Wu’s layout wrong?

A few months ago, the CEO dispute between Bitmain's Jihan Wu and Zhan Ketuan caused a stir in the industry. This time, Bitmain's layoffs have also attracted widespread attention.

Recently, an insider said that Bitmain once again launched a personnel optimization plan at the end of 2019. The company is currently operating normally and has healthy cash flow, but with the upcoming Bitcoin halving in May, the company needs to streamline its organization to "survive the winter."

It was revealed that Wu Jihan chaired a relevant meeting last weekend and asked all department managers to submit optimization lists. The optimization plan is expected to be completed before the annual meeting on January 17.

On February 19, 2019, it was reported that Bitmain had completed a round of large-scale layoffs, covering multiple business lines including blockchain, artificial intelligence, chips, etc. The artificial intelligence business was the hardest hit area in this round of layoffs.

Bitmain is laying off employees again this time to correct the mistakes of its former chairman, Micree Zhan, especially the AI ​​business planned by Micree Zhan, which will become the focus of optimization as it cannot generate profits in order to maintain its technological leadership.

This is very intriguing. Bitmain's evaluation of Zhan Ketuan this time is "arbitrary expansion of business and arbitrary use of funds." After all, the battle for the head of Bitmain a few months ago was a tit-for-tat battle, and the former partnership fell apart.

As the two founders of Bitmain, Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan have long served as co-CEOs. Until March 26, 2019, Zhan Ketuan became the chairman and Wu Jihan "retired to the second line". However, on October 28, things changed dramatically again. The legal representative and executive director of Bitmain were changed from Zhan Ketuan to Wu Jihan. During this period, Zhan Ketuan was on a business trip.

It is reported that the direct reason for Wu Jihan's strong return is the chaos in business management by Zhan Ketuan.

Zhan Ketuan is known as the "technical brain" of Bitmain, while Wu Jihan comes from the marketing and finance background. The different professional backgrounds of the two are also the main reason for their conflict. After the Bitcoin price suffered a Waterloo in 2018 and Bitmain was severely hit, the two had differences on the future development direction of Bitmain. Wu Jihan advocated the continued development of digital currency and the development of new mining machines; while Zhan Ketuan hoped to devote himself to the field of AI and transform the company into a chip manufacturing company.

In Bitmain's two layoffs this year, AI became the main target of layoffs. Regardless of the conflict between Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan, the AI ​​business has never been profitable at Bitmain. Is it because Zhan Ketuan's layout is wrong and his management is poor, or is it because my country's AI technology is immature that led to the failure of Zhan Ketuan's technological ideals?

So, when Wu Jihan dismissed Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, was it a rift between brothers or a way to save Bitmain?

Only time can give us the answer. What kind of glory will Bitmain create under the leadership of Jihan Wu?

Bitcoin halving, will mining accidents really happen?

With the arrival of 2020, the mining industry is facing the pressure of the third halving of Bitcoin. Bitmain, one of the three giant mining machine manufacturers, has also made the decision to lay off employees. Is it true that a mining accident will happen?

Bitmain also responded to the layoff plan, saying that it would continue to make normal personnel adjustments depending on market conditions and business development. Bitmain, as always, welcomes outstanding talents from all walks of life to join.

Compared with its competitor Shenma Mining Machine, which has a staff of 100, Bitmain has more than 1,000 people, which is relatively redundant. Industry insiders said that the current trend of Bitcoin is unclear, and the Bitcoin halving in May is a huge uncertainty for mining machine companies. Bitmain should indeed optimize its staff.

The future of the Bitcoin market is uncertain, and the third halving is indeed a major event in the industry. Faced with the mining disaster predicted by industry insiders, Canaan Creative previously stated in a program that it did not believe that a mining disaster would happen and looked forward to the arrival of the Bitcoin halving event, while Bitmain took the approach of layoffs to deal with it.

The different strategies of the two mining machine giants also make the mining accident confusing. However, no matter what, the third halving of Bitcoin is irreversible. We can indeed look forward to what kind of excitement and surprises Bitcoin will bring to the industry after this halving!