 [link] [comments] The deepest report: Bitmain's self-help history The original intention of this article is to let readers understand the causes and consequences of Bitmain internal fighting, but after writing it, I found that it is not so much internal fighting as it is a long history of self-help. The story is very long. Let's adjust the timeline to the eve of December 00, 0000. That was one of Bitmain's most critical moments and the beginning of a series of subsequent stories. 0. Self-immolation In September 0000, Bitmain's financial department warned management that the company's cash flow has become very tight and operating costs must be reduced to allow the company to continue. The blockchain unicorn, which is valued at more than 00 billion U.S. dollars, is crippled in the run and struggling to break the corner. In 0000, Bitmain made a profit of 0 billion US dollars In the first half of 0000, Bitmain made a profit of 0 billion US dollars Three rounds of financing, a total of 000 million US dollars Net assets should exceed 0 billion U.S. dollars In September 0000, Bitmain had tight cash flow and was on the verge of bankruptcy A simple comparison, it is not difficult to see that Bitmain's ability to make money is incredible, and its ability to burn money is even more extreme. How does Bitmain burn money? Do you pour cash into gasoline and burn it, or hire a lot of employees to stuff the banknotes one by one into the shredder? The actual situation is closer to the latter. The following data can help readers quickly learn Bitmain's money burning skills. At the beginning of 0000, the entire cryptocurrency market has entered a bear market, but Bitmain's monthly operating costs have been rising wildly. Operating costs have risen from 00 million US dollars at the beginning of the year to 00 million US dollars at the end of the year. Large-scale expansion of the R&D team is one of the main reasons. The HR who once worked at Bitmain revealed that the company once hired more than 00 employees a day and nearly 000 employees a month. Even so, it was criticized for its slow recruitment speed. The cash consumption in this area is approximately $000 million. Operating costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Excessive chip trial production can become a classic case of project management courses. Readers who pay attention to Cryptocurrency mining can easily find that Bitmain is still working hard to clear the inventory of Antminer S0 in 0000. As the co-CEO, Ketuan Zhan did not listen to the advice or even warnings of the Finance Department, insisting on the implementation of Excessive chip trial production, resulting in a large accumulation of inventory and tight capital turnover. Another CEO, Jihan Wu, once revealed that the loss of Excessive chip trial production to the company was approximately US$0.0 billion. Large-scale expansion of the R&D team is one of the main reasons. The HR who once worked at Bitmain revealed that the company once hired more than 00 employees a day and nearly 000 employees a month. Even so, it was criticized for its slow recruitment speed. The cash consumption in this area is approximately $000 million. The BM0000 chip incident is even more incredible. Chip expert Ketuan Zhan invested a lot of money on a failed chip, and finally failed again. From 0000 to 0000, Bitmain has failed Trial production of mining machine chips at least 0 times, including 00nm, 00nm and 00nm chips, of which 00nm Trial production failed twice, thus losing at least US$0.0 billion. It is rumored that Bitmain still holds a billion U.S. dollars worth of cryptocurrency in a state of floating loss. In view of the rebound in the market in 0000, we will not comment temporarily, waiting for the correct answer from the cryptocurrency market. But the losses pointed out in the previous article are all irreversible. 0. Sole power In September 0000, Bitmain's management realized the seriousness of the problem. It turned out that the company's money could be squandered. As a result, the management began to discuss self-help plans, and the most reasonable and effective way was obviously to lay off employees. The probation period for newly hired employees at Bitmain is half a year, and the probationary salary is 000% of the official salary, there is no difference. Once layoffs are made, new employees who have not passed the probationary period will be the main layoff targets. The department managed by Ketuan Zhan will face large-scale layoffs. The layoff plan is strongly opposed by Ketuan Zhan. Bitmain can only temporarily abandon the layoffs and replace it with continuous reductions. For marketing and travel expenses, a budget committee was established to strictly approve every expenditure. At the same time, employee benefits, such as reimbursement of taxi expenses, breakfast supply, snacks and drinks, etc., have also been abolished, and even the tradition of giving employees 000 yuan worth of BTC/BCH every month has been stopped. In the face of huge cash flow pressure, trivial savings is obviously of no avail. Soon, the management again discussed the layoff plan, and it has reached the point where it has to be laid off. In December 0000, Jihan Wu began to organize all entrepreneurial veterans and business backbones to persuade Ketuan Zhan to agree to layoffs, but Ketuan Zhan still insisted not to layoffs. The persuasion process was very unsuccessful. After many meetings and intense debates, Bitmain executives were caught in a dilemma of wasting time with Ketuan Zhan. In this process, the shortcomings of the dual CEO system began to appear, and the relationship between the two CEOs gradually deteriorated. On the night of December 00th, Ketuan Zhan reconvened the management meeting, and more than 00 managements who were present were asked to hand over their mobile phones. At this time, Jihan Wu was on a business trip in Hong Kong and was busy with listing related work. In the meeting, Ketuan Zhan's core content was three items: (0) Bitmain cannot have two CEOs, only one CEO and must be Ketuan Zhan. Ketuan Zhan said that he met an old leader during a business trip. He hadn't seen each other for many years. The old leader suggested that the company can only have one CEO, and it must be him. Ketuan Zhan feels that this is a kind of fate, an opportunity given by God. (0) Ketuan Zhan believes that the company's cash flow problems, the biggest responsibility is the inability of the financial department. To prove his point, Ketuan Zhan announced Bitmain's financial data at the meeting. In the evening, employees in Taiwan began to post messages on social media, saying that the company's capital chain was broken and the top management was split. (0) If Ketuan Zhan is not supported, the option will be cancelled and the equity will be voided. Hearing about this, Jihan Wu, who lives in Hong Kong, sent a WeChat message to the management who are attending the meeting. ​ https://preview.redd.it/