Micree Zhan is a widely respected and watched name in the cryptocurrency world. He is one of the founders of Bitmain, which was once one of the world's largest manufacturers of Bitcoin mining machines. However, his experience in the cryptocurrency world has been full of ups and downs, filled with technological innovation, business savvy, and internal power struggles.
1. Other people’s children
Zhan Ketuan has always been the "other people's child" in the eyes of his parents. Born in Minhou, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province in 1979, Zhan Ketuan has always been an excellent student. At the age of 18, he was admitted to Shandong University with a major in electronic information science and technology. At the age of 22, he studied for a master's degree in microelectronics and solid-state electronics at the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the age of 25, he joined the Institute of Information Technology of Tsinghua University as a research and development engineer.
From the above, we can see that Zhan Ketuan is a real academic master. If he continues to develop in this trend, he should become an expert in a certain field in our country. It cannot be said that what he is engaged in has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency circle. They are simply not related at all. But like all coincidences in life, you never know what the next piece of chocolate will taste like.
2. Recruitment of Jihan Wu
How did Zhan Ketuan go from being a good kid to entering the cryptocurrency circle? All this is due to Wu Jihan. In 2013, the mining machine market was occupied by Canaan Gengzhi.
In March of the same year, Wu Jihan, who was determined to start his own business, used his eloquence to convince Zhan Ketuan in just two hours, and then they founded Bitmain together. They agreed that once Zhan Ketuan led the technical team to develop a mining chip, he would give the team 60% of the shares.
3. Technological innovation
Bitmain's first product was Antminer S1, which was developed in just half a year by Zhan Ketuan's team. It was an ASIC miner for Bitcoin mining. This product caused a sensation in the Bitcoin mining community because its performance far exceeded the level of other mining hardware on the market at the time.
The launch of Antminer S1 marked the emergence of Bitmain and laid a solid foundation for the company's future. Subsequently, the Antminer has been upgraded from S1 to S17, among which Antminer S9 and Antminer T9 are the pinnacle of Bitmain.
They have led the development of mining hardware, improved the security of the Bitcoin network, and helped miners get more Bitcoin rewards. The advent of these products has won Bitmain the trust and respect of miners around the world, allowing the company to dominate the global Bitcoin mining machine market. Its mining machine market share once exceeded 70%, and Zhan Ketuan also received more shares.
4. Dreams lose to reality
In the face of money, human nature will be exposed. On October 28, 2019, Zhan Ketuan went on a business trip to the Shenzhen CPSE. He did not bring the official seal and was forcefully dismissed by Wu Jihan.
On the same day, Wu Jihan changed the legal representative and executive director of Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. from Zhan Ketuan to himself at the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and Ge Yuemao was appointed as the supervisor. He then sent emails to all employees and held a meeting, removing Zhan Ketuan from all positions and blocking his access to the company.
Zhan Ketuan, who is far away in Shenzhen, was forced to resign from his position as legal person and could not even return to the company. Zhan Ketuan's sudden dismissal by the company's board of directors has attracted widespread attention and controversy. This internal dispute has weakened the company's leadership stability and has a significant impact on Bitmain's future.
5. Savage Game of Thrones
If we look back at the rise of this well-known mining machine manufacturer, we will find that similar genes of wild growth and disregard for rules have always existed and have never changed.
Bitmain was founded in 2013. After completing its B+ round of financing in August 2018, Bitmain's valuation reached US$15 billion, and it went public in Hong Kong in September of the same year. The prospectus data at the time showed that Bitmain's core product was cryptocurrency mining machine ASIC chips, with a global market share of more than 70%. Mining machine sales were the company's main source of revenue, accounting for more than 90% of its revenue at the time.
But after 2018, the entire crypto market quickly entered a bear market, and the price of Bitcoin once fell to a low of $3,500, and Bitmain's IPO journey was thus aborted.
During this period, the two founders of Bitmain, Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan, began to seize power. First, Wu Jihan suddenly launched an attack on October 29, changing the chairman of Bitmain's industrial and commercial information to himself, and announced that Zhan Ketuan was dismissed from all positions in Bitmain. Subsequently, Zhan Ketuan filed administrative reconsiderations with the Beijing Haidian District Justice Bureau several times, applying to revoke the change of legal representative and restore himself as legal representative.
After the repeated changes of the legal representative of Bitmain, and even the farce of Wu Jihan's side openly snatching the business license at the Haidian Administrative Service Center, Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan reached a settlement: Zhan Ketuan bought part of Wu Jihan's shares for US$600 million, Wu Jihan became the chairman of BitDeer and became independent from Bitmain.
After the internal strife, Bitmain was seriously damaged, and the two founders took different development paths. Wu Jihan's BitDeer focused on the construction of blockchain infrastructure, and led BitDeer to ring the bell on the Nasdaq in the United States on April 14 this year. The current total market value is about US$870 million; Zhan Ketuan's Bitmain business mainly focuses on AI chips and mining chips, but both the overall environment of the crypto market and Bitmain's own reputation and size are no longer what they used to be.
6. Stick to your dreams
Zhan Ketuan is a prominent figure in the Bitcoin industry. He has made important contributions to the development of Bitcoin and blockchain technology through the creation and technological innovation of Bitmain. His early education and technical background paved the way for his success (it can only be said that all things are inferior, only reading is superior), and his entrepreneurial spirit and technical expertise at Bitmain made him an industry leader. Although he has left Bitmain, Zhan Ketuan still plays an important role in the blockchain and cryptocurrency field, providing solid support for the future development of the cryptocurrency circle.
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