Kanye West-themed 'Coinye' is the latest anonymous digital currency attempting to join the ranks of Bitcoin and Dogecoin. And now, Kanye's lawyers are out to end it.
We reported on the upstart cryptocurrency last week, and the founders—who are trying to remain anonymous—expressed concern about whether West would approve of something so blatantly inspired by him.
Well, now we have the answer, via the Wall Street Journal: Kanye doesn't approve.
West's lawyer, Brad Rose—the same lawyer who filed the official paperwork on DONDA, who appears to be Kanye's legal watchdog—sent cease and desist letters to the creators, noting that "Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services."
So, how'd Team 'Coinye' respond? Instead of launching Jan. 11 as previously planned, Coinye is launching TODAY. Because the code is going public once launched it, there's virtually nothing that Coinye's creators nor Kanye's lawyers can do to stop it from growing. West's lawyers, from that point on, would have to prosecute people individually for using Coinye, which would be extremely difficult to do, given the anonymity of the currency.
The currency will go live today at 10 p.m. EST and 7 p.m. PST. Hilariously, the creators of Coinye note that they are 'being attacked with fishsticks' as a euphemism for legal threats by Kanye's team.
From the Coinye website:
DROPPING JANUARY 7 2014. 7 PM *PST*. No screwed up fake "fair" launches, shyster devs, muted channels, and f**ked up wallets. We will be releasing password protected, encrypted archives containing the binaries and source for the wallet and daemon BEFORE LAUNCH, with the passwords to be released at the specified time. We will work with multiple pools to orchestrate a PROPER and FAIR release.
[via The Wall Street Journal]
