...
OTOH, they (or their H/W manufacturer) are guilty of patent infringement, so they may not be up and running for very long. ...
My only comment is that it might be very hard if not impossible to enforce the
patent rights in China. The Chinese government is notorious for favoring their
own citizens who violate Western patents and sometimes penalizing non-Chinese
companies as a farce to strengthen their own companies.
But it could be possible to enforce in US and other Western courts and prevent
their US based or Western based corporations or mining pools from operating
in those areas. For example, if they were going to open an exchange in the US,
you could sue their parent company and have the exchanges assets frozen and
given to the western patent holder, which will cause their companies in the US
to go into bankruptcy.
Basically, you can not get them directly where they are located, so they would
need to get them on the violations in the EU and US courts. If they have foreign
banks accounts, they can be seized to pay for damages.
If their ASICBOOST Chips use the same mechanism as the western patents,
they can be held liable outside of China.
