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firebirdsdaughter · 3 years

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Okay.

No one cares about my two cents but I feel like saying a thing.

Do I think this is absolutely the end of the Western toku fandom? No, honestly. If the Mouse can’t stop leaking and piracy, Toei can’t stop all of it. It will definitely start having to come from small circles/shady places, but they are not gonna be able to stop all of it. I think it might slow stuff down make it harder to access, but if people stick w/ it, it won’t disappear (also subs will get worse bar certain services).

Tbh, I’m not entirely convinced there’s a genuine threat either, at most might be a scare tactic, however I strongly support the fansubbing groups’ decisions to not risk it. In cases like this it is way better to be safe than sorry. While it’s disappointing to lose access, it’s in no way worth them risking getting sued or anything like that, esp since they’ve done it on their own time for free for so long.

But I do also have to admit that I think there’s a portion of the Western fandom (esp the American one, I think, as an American, but I could be wrong) that brought this on themselves/the rest of us. It’s not so much an issue in smaller circles, where I try to stay, but I’ve felt for a long time that the ‘mainstream’ ‘general’ toku fandom in the West is… Very, for lack of a better word, toxic. There’s a certain sense of entitlement and arrogance? So many people who seem to totally lose the fact that we are not the target audience. That’s not to say one can’t criticise (I’ll be the first to say that I have things I disagree w/ in shows), but I’ve in many places seen people say things that utterly baffle me, and esp in the Western fandom there’s this attitude that some toku, KR in particular ‘isn’t actually for kids anymore, more adults watch it.’ I see people making wildly inappropriate comments about actors (whoever started that rumour about poor Noa, the challenge to fight you still stands). Stuff like that. The sort of elitist attitude I felt from the whole Amazonz thing.

But the fact is, it is a kids’ show, and we, Westerners, are not the target demographic. Sure, we do represent a portion of sales, but we’re not where bank is. Toei doesn’t care if you won’t buy a Sentai toy bc the girl isn’t yellow, or whether you hate all the characters. We’re not the target viewers. For all I whine up the wazoo and joke about fighting Takahashi, I have no illusions that he cares what I think or that I have any power/can do anything about what was done. I can critique and say I disagree, but ultimately Toei doesn’t care what I think (although I’ve given them some solid cash bc of Horobi and Fuwa… ;^^). I think there’s some large misconception that the Western fandom is more important than it actually is. I’m not saying we’re not part of the equation and we don’t give them money and it wouldn’t behoove sales for us to have access to the shows, but that I don’t think we’re such a substantial cut that ‘losing’ us or having Western consumption slow down will be a large blow to them—at the very least, from their perspective, we wouldn’t be.

Also… There’s this attitude of invincibility? Japan’s not some distant, exotic, magical land of mystery. Toei has a public social media presence. There’s absolutely multiple people at the company who speak and read English, at least, fluently, probably even other languages. You put stuff in places where they will see it, they will see it. I may not be a huge fan of Shirakura’s producing style and I don’t know what he’s like as a person, but I do have to say I respect the grace w/ which he handled getting (twice?) confronted by piracy/leaks by simply saying ‘you/we’re not supposed to know about that.’ And I know those aren’t the only instances (I remember when Nachi was announced as part of the cast, someone was asking him about Thouser, who we were, to quote Shirakura P. ‘not supposed to know about’ at the time).

Basically… It’s the same thing as people harassing fansubbers for not being ‘fast enough’—we were never entitled to these shows, esp not for free. Yes, us getting to see them did provide Toei w/ revenue, but we are not the target audience, this was never an official release of the show or anything else. It was something that some people who were interested in the shows/genre did out of the kindness of their hearts to share it w/ us on the down low. We were not owed anything, we do not deserve any super special treatment. We invested our time, by our choice. It’s sad to see the access go, but again, we were never entitled to it, it was just something people did to share something they cared about, and their well being is more important than getting the shows free.

Of course, I do understand being upset. I’m very disappointed. Maybe support movements to get the shows legally easily accessible in the West? I heard stuff about there being people advocating for that. Alternatively, and not like anyone who would do this is following me or near my blog, maybe don’t brazenly show leaks and mention benevolent piracy to people in the company? For one thing, you’re putting the leak and/or fansubbers in the crosshairs when they’re just trying to do something nice, and you’re being tactless and rude in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if Toei was on the side of turning a blind eye towards the sharing bc of the sales, until it started getting shoved in their faces. What started as a fun, well meaning way of giving access to something enjoyable that other people might not be able to get to was twisted into some sort of… Weird, entitled, toxic, arrogant, demanding mess by people who… I dunno. Forgot the circumstances? Were so full of themselves they didn’t care? Didn’t understand the situation?

Either way… Congrats, guys, you ruined it for everyone. Thanks.

#Firebird Opinions #I would never really call Toei 'benevolent'#but I don't think they 'wanted' to go after fansubbers etc. bc it did give them sales #but I know shits been getting ridiculous over on twitter at least #and it just… blows my mind #yes I'm not totally convinced this isn't a 'scare' tactic #maybe a ploy #maybe just them faking doing something #but given the circumstances subbers have every right and SHOULD play it safe #they should not risk taking a legal bullet for us after everything else they've done for us #and while I am totally w/ being disappointed and wanting them back and nagging Toei #(this wouldn't have needed to happen if they tried official international releases)#I think the majority of this is on the tactless entitled behaviour of certain people in the Western fandom #like I don't know anyone who would do that but I don't know the whole 'fandom'#and the people I am referring too are like folks on twitter/facebook/reddit/who knows #the giant mass that's out there there's a denomination of people who contributed to this #so thanks #that was sarcasm #anyway #my thoughts that no one wanted

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legit-scam-review · 5 years

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Cornered by Bear Market, Bitmain Is Facing an Unclear Future

On Jan. 10, news emerged that Chinese Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain’s co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan, will step down as co-CEOs of the company. The move follows a streak of reports suggesting that Bitmain has been facing mass layoffs, class action lawsuits and difficulties related to its initial public offering (IPO) during the last quarter of 2018. So what exactly is happening with one of the world’s most influential crypto outfits?

Brief introduction to Bitmain, the world’s most powerful crypto mining giant

Bitmain was founded in 2013 by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan. Prior to that, Wu was a private equity fund manager who studied economics and psychology at Peking University, while Zhan, a graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was trying to raise funds for a startup that allowed users to stream television shows to a computer screen via a set-top box.

After discovering Bitcoin (BTC) in early 2011, Wu allegedly spent all his life savings to buy the cryptocurrency. When the Bitcoin’s price soared in 2013, he decided not only to trade the digital asset, but to create it as well. Wu asked Zhan to join him, and together they began developing an ASIC chip that would mine BTC at maximum efficiency. In November 2013, Zhan, the duo’s technical mastermind, presented their first mining rig, the Antminer S1, and Bitmain’s sales took off.

According to Wu, the company experienced a difficult period close to the end of 2014, when the infamous Mt.Gox crash happened and the whole crypto market collapsed. The situation eventually stabilized when BTC’s price began climbing up again the next year. Consequently, when the 2017 crypto boom kicked in, the business became extremely lucrative.

Thus, Bitmain booked $2.5 billion of revenue in 2017 alone, as Wu told Bloomberg, while this year turned out to be even more profitable: According to the company’s prospectus, its revenue was set at $2.8 billion by the end of June 2018. According to a different report issued by investment research company Bernstein, Bitmain made between $3 billion and $4 billion in operating profit in 2017 and allegedly outraced Nvidia, which made about $3 billion during the same period.

In May 2018, Bitmain announced its expansion to the area of artificial intelligence (AI), where it planned to compete against Nvidia, Intel and AMD using its existing chip designs to power AI systems and software. The plan was disclosed against the backdrop of increasing scrutiny regarding crypto mining operations in China. “As a China company,” said Wu, “we have to be prepared.” He added that Bitmain plans to start earning as much as 40 percent of its revenue from AI chips within five years.

Sales of Bitmain’s mining chips and circuits reportedly account for around 70 to 80 percent of the whole market. As per the company’s LinkedIn page, Bitmain is currently headquartered in Beijing and employs around 2,500 people across the world. However, it is unclear whether this information is up to date, considering the recent reports regarding job cuts.

Current state of affairs: Bear market-induced losses

As of January 2019, the two mining pools operated by Bitmain, AntPool and BTC.com, contribute to almost 23 percent of the total hashing power of the entire Bitcoin mining pool. However, just six months ago, the company’s mining pools represented 41 percent of the market share, meaning that its share has been steadily declining. Indeed, the bear market has been taking its toll, and 2018 turned out to be a problematic year for the mining giant.

According to a BitMEX Research report released on Aug. 30, Bitmain sold a lot of its mining units at a loss throughout 2018. The paper suggested that it was a deliberate strategy “to squeeze out [Bitmain’s] competition by causing them to experience lower sales and therefore financial difficulties”:

“This analysis implies Bitmain are currently loss-making, with a negative profit margin of 11.6% for the main S9 product and a margin of over negative 100% on the L3 product. In reality costs are likely to have declined so the situation may not be as bad, however we think it is likely Bitmain are currently making significant losses.”

As previously noted by Cointelegraph, at the time the BitMEX research was published, the price of Bitcoin was hovering around $7,000, which was still above the breakeven cost of mining. Therefore, the demand was likely to be there, which would make the Bitmain’s price war justified. However, when the full-blown bear market hit in November, and the price of Bitcoin fell below the breakeven cost of mining of $6,900, Bitmain should have started to experience harsher financial difficulties due to lesser demand for mining devices.

Bitmain staff cuts: From Israel division to CEO position

One of the most evident signs that Bitmain’s business has taken a hit are the reported layoffs. On Dec. 26, Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) quoted Bitmain’s alleged statement regarding internal job cuts. The announcement reportedly read:

“A part of [building a sustainable business] is having to really focus on things that are core to that mission and not things that are auxiliary. As we move into the new year we will continue to double down on hiring the best talent from a diverse range of backgrounds.”

As SCMP noted, the exact number of layoffs had not been disclosed, but a spokesperson for the firm reportedly denied that Bitmain would lay off over half of its employees, a suggestion first circulated in Chinese social media.

Previously, on Dec. 23, Blockstream’s chief security officer, Samson Mow, stated that Bitmain fired its entire staff of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) developers, citing Chinese social media. The developers had formed Bitmain’s Copernicus team and were working on the company’s Bitcoin Cash GO client. “Only 1 week notice. Some had just joined the company,” Mow specified.

On Dec. 10, Israeli business news outlet Globes reported that Bitmain was closing its local development center and firing its employees. Dubbed Bitmaintech Israel, it was founded in 2016 to explore the use of blockchain, work on the Connect BTC mining pool, and develop the infrastructure behind Bitmain’s AI project titled “Sophon.” All 23 employees were fired, along with Gadi Glikberg, head of the Israeli branch as well as Bitmain’s vice president of international sales and marketing. Glikberg linked the layoffs to the crypto market collapse:

“The crypto market has undergone a shake-up in the past few months, which has forced Bitmain to examine its various activities around the globe and to refocus its business in accordance with the current situation.”

Finally, according to a series of yet-to-be-finally-confirmed reports, changes occurred even at the senior level of the mining giant. Thus, on Jan. 10, SCMP wrote that both Bitmain’s co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan, will quit their posts as co-CEOs, but still steer the company’s important decisions. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the media outlet said Bitmain’s director of product engineering, Wang Haichao, would likely take over as CEO at an unspecified future date, while he has allegedly already taken over some of the duo’s former duties. According to the September IPO filing, Wu and Zhan control 21 and 37 percent of the business respectively.

Bitmain IPO plans become doubtful as well

In June 2018, media started to report that Jihan Wu was planning to conduct an overseas IPO in a market with United States dollar denominated shares — like Hong Kong — as it would allow early backers to cash in funds. An IPO is a more traditional and regulatory-friendly way for a company to seek investments from a broader audience in the public market, which Cointelegraph has covered in depth before.

Later in July, a research unit for crypto exchange BitMEX analyzed alleged leaked data on Bitmain’s potential IPO and stated that the mining giant had conducted a pre-IPO round that reportedly raised around $14 billion, leading them to believe that it could raise no less than $20 billion at the IPO stage.

Nevertheless, as Cointelegraph reported earlier, there had been a lot of rumors and uncertainty around Bitmain’s upcoming IPO. In December, they were reignited by Hong Kong-based newspaper SCMP, which reported that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) is reluctant to allow Bitmain to conduct an offering in the city.

According to the publication’s anonymous sources, the regulator thinks it is “premature for any cryptocurrency trading platform – or business associated with the industry – to raise funds through an IPO in Hong Kong before the proper regulatory framework is in place.” As a result, SCMP suggests current conditions “could be an insurmountable hurdle” for Bitmain and other cryptocurrency companies planning to launch an IPO. Similarly, in November, HKEX lapsed the IPO application of Canaan, Bitmain’s competition on the mining market, which also was going to hold an offering there. Now, the company is looking to move its IPO plans to New York.

Interestingly, just a day prior to the SCMP article, the HKEX told Cointelegraph that any reports regarding hesitation on the part of Bitmain were “rumors,” suggesting that negotiations between the regulator and the mining giant were in progress.

The mining giant is facing two class action lawsuits on top of other problems

In addition to staff cuts and other problems, Bitmain seems to be facing at least two class action lawsuits. The first one was filed by Los Angeles County resident Gor Gevorkyan, who allegedly purchased their devices, including its S9 Antminer machine, in January 2018. According to the filing submitted to the North District Court of California in November, the product was “difficult to configure” and lapsed during a “substantial amount of time.” Gevorkyan claims that before he could fully initialize the devices, they operated at cost-intensive “full power mode” at his expense. The plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of $5 million on behalf of all miners “similarly situated” as Bitmain clients.

The more recent lawsuit was initiated by UnitedCorp, a development and management firm with a focus on telecommunications and information technologies. On Dec. 6, it reported suing Bitmain along with Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver and the Kraken exchange, which reportedly planned a scheme to take control of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network during the November hard fork.