A big shot in the cryptocurrency circle reported a listed company by real name, and unexpectedly implicated a "key man". To whom do the more than 4,000 bitcoins belong?

Source: Maocaijing

A week has passed since Ebang International reported Huatie Emergency (8.040, -0.08, -0.99%) by real name on August 8. At 2 pm on August 15, Ebang International originally planned to hold a second press conference, but notified twice on the same day to change the time of the press conference. On the evening of August 15, Ebang International informed that the press conference was cancelled because the government intended to coordinate the two parties to negotiate a solution.

In the past week, the focus of public opinion on the game between Ebang International and Huatie Emergency (603300, SH) was still "Who will own the 56,000 mining machines?" "Who is the real beneficiary of 4,000 bitcoins?" "Is the Bitcoin mining pool account of Pan Qian, the wife of Hu Danfeng, the actual controller of Huatie Emergency, really just an observer account?"

Several people in the cryptocurrency industry revealed to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, and whoever owns the private key corresponding to a Bitcoin address is the beneficiary of the Bitcoin at that address.

In the relevant responses provided by Huatie Emergency and Ebang International, Ebang International mentioned that a person named Wei Tiantian once used Bitcoin to pay for electricity required for mining. After checking the payment records, the reporter found that the Bitcoin payment address was consistent with three Bitcoin addresses corresponding to Pan Qian's observer account.

Who is Wei Tiantian? Why can she use the Bitcoin in Pan Qian's Observer account? What relationships are hidden behind this?

Whose Bitcoin?

On August 8, Ebang International said that one of the Bitcoin mining pools, miner numbers, Bitcoin earnings and Bitcoin wallet addresses corresponding to the mining machines purchased by Huatie Hengan all belonged to a mobile phone user with a number starting with 139, who happened to be Pan Qian, the wife of Hu Danfeng, the actual controller of Huatie Emergency. On August 9, a reporter from the Daily Economic News called the mobile phone number, but the call could not be connected.

Ebang International said that through technical analysis of the Bitcoin wallet address corresponding to the above mobile phone number and multi-channel inquiries, Pan Qian's Bitcoin wallet has 4418.895748 Bitcoins. According to the current price, the value of these Bitcoins exceeds 1.2 billion yuan.

Five Bitcoin addresses provided by Ebang International

On August 10, Huatie Emergency provided a statement to reporters stating: "The Bitcoin mined by customers is not controlled by the actual controller Hu Danfeng and his spouse Pan Qian. The account was set up by Pan Qian to check the operation of the company's machines and ensure the safe payment of rent. The mobile phone number is only an observer link to understand the operation status of the company's rented servers and avoid the risk of server shutdown and misappropriation. The Bitcoin wallet address is provided by the lessee, and the income is directly collected by the lessee to the wallet address, which has nothing to do with the mining pool address registered with the mobile phone number."

However, in its rebuttal to Huatie Emergency’s response, Ebang International mentioned that the above-mentioned Bitcoin account had been used to pay the electricity bills of Huatie Emergency’s mining machines, and provided some screenshots.

The Bitcoin address provided by Ebang International that Wei Tiantian used to sell coins to pay for electricity

Recently, a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" interviewed many people in the currency circle. Regarding the ownership of Bitcoin, many people in the currency circle said that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, and whoever owns the private key corresponding to the Bitcoin address is the beneficiary of the Bitcoin at that address.

So, who holds the private keys to these more than 4,000 bitcoins? Is it one person or multiple people? It may be difficult to judge based on the existing evidence.

However, in the information provided by Ebang International, it was mentioned that a person named Wei Tiantian used the bitcoin mined by Ebang mining machine to pay electricity bills on August 30, 2018. The bitcoin address used for payment was consistent with three of the five bitcoin addresses on the observer account corresponding to Pan Qian's mobile phone number.

Image source: Provided by Yibang International

"Mr. Key" Chen Baoqing

According to this transaction path, it seems that we can infer that Wei Tiantian owns the private keys of 3 consistent Bitcoin addresses and is the actual beneficiary of the Bitcoin corresponding to the Bitcoin address?

Evidence provided by Yibang International shows that Wei Tiantian was pulled into the electricity bill payment WeChat group by Chen Baoqing, while Huatie Emergency's clarification statement reads: "Wei Tiantian has no relationship with the company, she is a friend of Chen Baoqing of Newbo Industrial." The company learned through a telephone interview with Wei Tiantian that Wei Tiantian was not an employee of Huatie Emergency, but knew Chen Baoqing, cooperated with Chen Baoqing in the business of buying and selling Bitcoin, and helped Chen Baoqing pay the electricity bill, paying Hong Jiajun about 10 million yuan (Note: Huatie Emergency said that Hong Jiajun was the designated server hosting provider of Zhejiang Yibang Communication Technology Co., Ltd.) "

From the explanations provided by both parties, it can be seen that Wei Tiantian used Bitcoin to pay the electricity bill on August 30, 2018 because Chen Baoqing needed to pay the electricity bill for the mining machine. At the Huatie emergency briefing on the evening of August 9, the company displayed the receipt on site, publicly indicating that Chen Baoqing belonged to Newbo Industrial.

According to the logical relationship of the public responses of all parties, it can be sorted out that Huatie Emergency first purchased 24,000 mining machines from Ebang International. After the mining machines were put into operation, Pan Qian registered an observer account in a third-party mining pool using her mobile phone number. Among the five Bitcoin receiving addresses added to this account, three are suspected to be actually owned by Wei Tiantian, because Wei Tiantian used the Bitcoins in the three Bitcoin addresses to help Chen Baoqing of Newbo Industrial pay the electricity bill for the mining machines.

A reporter from the Daily Economic News checked the Qixinbao data and found that before May 2019, the name "Wei Tiantian" was shown as the person in charge of the second branch of a Zhejiang company in Hangzhou. The company's office address is in the office building of Huatie Emergency, and the contact information registered with the Industrial and Commercial Bureau is the same as that of Newbo Industrial. There are many coincidences and many questions to be answered.

According to the receipt form provided by Huatie Emergency on August 9, 2021, Newbo Industry signed for 56,000 mining machines with Ebang International in October 2018. But before that, Chen Baoqing of Newbo Industry had to pay the electricity bill for the mining machines. Who did these mining machines belong to?

On August 10, Huatie Emergency said that the payment of funds by Wei Tiantian and Hong Jiajun was personal behavior and had nothing to do with Huatie Emergency and its subsidiaries, and there was no under-listing of costs. On the same day, Ebang Communications refuted that Wei Tiantian sold coins to pay for electricity, which was to pay for the electricity bills of Huatie Emergency's mining machines.

This raises another question: What is the relationship between Chen Baoqing and Huatie Hengan? What is the relationship between Newbo Industrial, the company behind Chen Baoqing, and Huatie Hengan?

According to Huatie Emergency, Huatie Heng'an does not mine itself, but is a lessor of mining machines. In the server leasing business, corresponding contracts are signed with customers, and the leasing cooperation between the two parties has a legal basis. Huatie Emergency previously disclosed the name of the lessee in the announcement.

However, Zhao Zeqi, the agent of Borri Spacetime, the custodian of the mining machines, told the reporter of Daily Economic News on the evening of August 8 that if Huatie Heng’an’s mining machines have a lessee, according to common sense, the custody fee of the mining machines should be borne by the lessee. But in fact, in the business contacts with Huatie Heng’an, the lessee has never been met.

Several people in the cryptocurrency industry revealed to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that if it is a leasing model, then the final profits from the Bitcoin generated by mining should belong to the lessee.

So, is Wei Tiantian, who can use the bitcoins mined by Huatie Heng'an mining machine, a representative of the lessee? What role did Chen Baoqing and Newbo Industrial play in Huatie Emergency's "mining machine" business? If Ebang International and Huatie Emergency can resolve the issue through negotiation, it may be difficult to get an answer.

The dispute between Yibang International and Huatie Emergency was initially triggered by the ownership of 56,000 mining machines, and the "key man" in this dispute was still Chen Baoqing.

Did Chen Baoqing have any business dealings with Huatie Hengan and the listed company Huatie Emergency before October 2018? On August 16, 2021, a reporter from the Daily Economic News asked Huatie Emergency for confirmation on the relevant issues. The secretary of the board of directors of Huatie Emergency said that they are currently responding to the exchange's questions and will inform you of the reply later. As of press time, no reply has been received.