Matter Labs, ZKsync Developer, Sued for Alleged Intellectual Property Theft

1 month ago

Matter Labs, the institution down layer-2 blockchain ZKSync, has been sued by BANKEX, a defunct integer plus banking platform, for intelligence spot theft.

Former BANKEX employees Alexandr Vlasov and Petr Korolev stole the company's exertion to commencement Matter Labs, which received implicit $450 cardinal successful task superior backing and has go a large subordinate successful the blockchain industry, BANKEX CEO Igor Khmel and the BANKEX Foundation alleged successful a ailment filed Mar. 19 with the New York State Supreme Court.

The ailment alleged that BANKEX was approached by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin successful 2017 to physique operational bundle for "Plasma," a exertion that was seen astatine the clip arsenic a mode to marque Ethereum cheaper to use.

According to the complaint, Alexandr Vlasov and Petr Korolev were BANKEX employees astatine the clip and were tasked by BANKEX CEO Igor Khemel with completing the Plasma project.

The ailment alleged that Vlasov and Korolev alternatively secretly developed “a competing company, Matter Labs, done which they intended to due the blockchain exertion of BANKEX for their ain usage and payment and to vie with BANKEX.” In addition, the ailment claimed that the 2 developers were secretly transferring “BANKEX’s exertion to Matter Labs and covertly developed and stored operational codification bases” utilizing the company’s resources and funding.

Vlasov is presently the caput of R&D astatine Matter Labs, and Korolev is the laminitis of blockchain information steadfast OXORIO, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Matter Labs co-founder Alex Gluchowski, crypto-native concern money Dragonfly, and Chris Burniske, a spouse astatine Placeholder Capital and a erstwhile co-director astatine Matter Labs, are besides being sued for their alleged engagement and cognition of the theft.

“We judge these claims are wholly without merit," a spokesperson astatine Matter Labs told CoinDesk successful an emailed statement. "The thrust of the ailment is that Matter Labs built ZKsync connected apical of codification that was primitively developed astatine Bankex. This is categorically false. ZKsync is archetypal exertion that is not based connected oregon derived from immoderate codification developed by Bankex. We basal by the integrity of our enactment and look guardant to addressing these baseless allegations successful tribunal erstwhile we are served."

Dragonfly, Burniske and Korolev did not respond to aggregate requests for comment.

BANKEX lawyer Clayton Mahaffey told CoinDesk successful a connection that the steadfast "prefers not to remark further connected the lawsuit astatine this time, different than to reiterate its content that the allegations successful the ailment are good founded and that it looks guardant to its time successful court."

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