A new cryptocurrency called CoinyeCoin launched Tuesday despite a cease-and-desist letter from Kanye West's lawyers to the coders behind the project.
The new cryptocurrency sounds like a joke, with the motto "WE AIN'T MININ', WE PICKIN," and boasting a maximum number of coins to ever be mined at 66,666,666,666. However, as we found out in the case of Dogecoin — another currency that recently sprouted from an Internet meme and has since gone viral — a joke cryptocurrency can also be very real and quite valuable.
For West's lawyers, CoinyeCoin simply represents trademark infringement.
“Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services,” wrote Brad Rose, a partner at Pryor Cashman LLP, a firm that has previously worked for West.
CoinyeCoin's founders don't plan on giving up that easily, though. In a Skype text interview with The Wall Street Journal, one of CoinyeCoin's founders said they plan to release the code to the public, after which the founders can't stop people from using it. “We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it. They’ll still come after us, but that’s OK,” he said.
Originally called Coinye West, the currency's name has been changed to CoinyeCoin, and a drawing of Kanye West's face — the currency's official mascot — has been replaced with a fish-like creature that vaguely resembles West. The official site has moved, but it can currently be found at coinyeco.in. The message on the site claims the coin was launched Jan. 7, though its original launch date was Jan. 11. Wallets and source code are indeed available for download at coinyecoin.org.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, it'll be hard for West's lawyers to do much to stop it from spreading. As with all cryptocurrencies, though, it's even harder to predict whether this one will become popular or quickly become just another small drop in the growing sea of virtual currencies.
Image: CoinyeCoin