A dispute is boiling over one of the most popular Bitcoin-related domain names in the world, and its OKCoin and Roger Ver who are at the centre of this major controversy.The battle between the two is all about the management and control of the Bitcoin.com domain name. In the December of last year, both the parties signed a 5 year deal to claim the right to control the property.
According to the terms of the agreement, OKCoin is obliged to redesign the website and compensate Ver with a percentage of the revenue that is raised on a monthly basis. The minimum amount to be paid is $10,000 per month.The latest reports on the altercation between the two parties inform us that Roger Ver has alleged that OKCoin is guilty of fraudulent activity.Statements from Roger Ver made it quite clear that OKCoin have been accused of concocting legal documents and tarnishing the reputation of Roger Ver.
These allegations come after months of back and forth finger pointing between the two parties, who hold each other responsible for leading the website into the wrong direction.Both parties have also accused each other of spoiling advertising plans that were supposed to add more momentum to the ongoing project.OKCoin has released an official statement about the dispute where they have clearly mentioned that they are shedding their responsibilities of managing the domain name any further.In addition to that, OKCoin has refused to accept the agreement documents as legal paperwork since the entity named in the documents does not represent them.
Furthermore, they have passed on the blame to their former CTO, Changpeng Zao, who struck agreement terms with Ver in the first place. The departure of Zao from OKCoin came in the early days of 2015.According to OKCoin, investigations about the discrepancies caused by the former CTO are currently underway.They have accused their former employee of unethical misconduct and believe that he is solely responsible for the predicament that they are in at this moment in time.
Although the statement made in their blog post did not directly mention the name Zao, the Vice President of OKCoin, Jack Liu, made it absolutely clear that the employee who is being investigated for his misdeeds is none other than Zhao himself.The blog post was published only a short while after the influx of allegations from Roger Ver regarding the fabrication of documents and signature fraud.Under the light of the current circumstances, people within the Bitcoin community have been anxious to hear words of clarification from Zao.He complied to their request with the following statement “OKCoin has used my signature a few times with bank transfers in Mozambique bank account, without my knowledge, after I left. I have asked for my name to be removed from OKCoin legal entities around the world for three months.And OKCoin is dragging their feet.
OKCoin also owe me roughly $40k USD in salary, which Star have refused to pay [sic].” As of now, it seems quite unlikely that the dispute will be resolved any time soon, in a consensual way.
