The man Newsweek called the "inventor" of Bitcoin wants the magazine to pay up.
Dorian Nakamoto, the subject of a March Newsweek cover story entitled "The Face Behind Bitcoin," is soliciting donations online to fund a lawsuit against the publication. He claims he had nothing to do with the creation of the digital currency, and says Newsweek "must be held accountable for its reckless reporting."
Yet another Bitcoin miner manufacturer, CoinTerra, now faces legal action for not fulfilling an order when it originally promised to. CoinTerra is the third Bitcoin-related startup to face litigation for breach of contract and/or fraud in recent months.
The CoinTerra lawsuit was filed in late April 2014 by an Oakland, California-based man seeking to be the lead plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit. Lautaro Cline, the suit alleges, purchased a TerraMiner IV in October 2013 for delivery by January 2014. The company promised, he claims, that this miner would operate at two terahashes per second and would consume 1,200 watts of power. It did neither.
However, Cline’s suit also claims that CoinTerra did not deliver the miner until February 2014, and it “operated well below the speed advertised and consumed significantly more power than CoinTerra represented, causing Plaintiff to suffer significant lost profits and opportunities.”
Neither CoinTerra nor its attorneys responded to Ars’ request for comment.
Cline’s attorney, Edward Mullins, told Ars that his client and CoinTerra are currently seeking mediation—an arrangement that takes place privately and outside of the court system where the two sides negotiate a deal.
“We hope to have it resolved sometime this summer,” Mullins said. “If it doesn’t work out then we will go forward [with the lawsuit.]”
Last week, CoinTerra formally asked the court for more time so it could arrange mediation.
Another firm, HashFast, recently sustained several lawsuits and arbitration cases. As a result, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month (PDF). Rival firm Butterfly Labs has also been bogged down with similar delays, allegations of fraud, and lawsuits.
After more than two decades and numerous attempts at a settlement, the U.S. government finally agreed to accept $400 million from General Dynamics and Boeing in the dispute over the Navy's cancellation of the $4.8 billion A-12 Avenger II program.
The settlement is a fraction of what the government sought when the lawsuit began, demanding $1.3 billion in restitution ($2.2 billion in 2014 dollars) for money spent on the stealthy carrier-based aircraft program that had yet to deliver an aircraft. And it is even smaller when compared with an agreement for $2.9 billion that was nearly negotiated in 2003.
On Jan. 24, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed the case, as requested by the Navy and contractors involved. Late last year, the government reached an agreement with Boeing and General Dynamics.
The Navy will receive three EA-18G Growlers that will be delivered on top of the 21 Boeing aircraft that were funded by Congress for fiscal 2014 and are expected to be delivered in 2016, according to the Navy.
General Dynamics will provide $198 million in credits to the Navy toward the design, construction and delivery portions of the Zumwalt-class DDG-1000 destroyer.
“We are closing a 23-year-long chapter in the annals of naval aviation and further strengthening, through the contractors' in-kind payment, the Navy's capabilities and capacities,” said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
