According to a new report by Ars Technica, bitcoin mining hardware maker CoinTerra’s dark days may be finally coming to a close. The company has been facing a class-action suit brought by disgruntled customers who purchased the TerraMiner IV on pre-order, only to wait through 10 months of development and shipping delays.
With a courtroom battle expected to be slow and expensive, both parties now seem willing to consider a mediated solution.
According to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Edward Mullins:
“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.]”
With several similar cases plaguing other mining hardware makers, the CoinTerra case may offer an insight into how those cases will ultimately be resolved.
CoinTerra’s situation has become something of a cautionary tale in the mining hardware industry. Even with a highly experienced and well-funded team, the company still experienced huge delays. As Ars Technica explains:
The startup was founded by a team that appears to have extensive experience in the industry. The company’s CEO, Ravi Iyengar, was Lead CPU Architect at Samsung for two years and worked out of the Samsung Austin Research Center.
The head of the company’s advisory board is Naveed Sherwani, an Intel veteran and current chair of the Global Semiconductor Association Technical Steering Committee. Sherwani literally wrote the book on very-large-scale integration (VLSI) semiconductor design and production.
But even they couldn’t seem to get their act together.
No date has yet been set for the CoinTerra mediation, but the company has formally asked the court for more time to allow for negotiations to take place.