In 2018, a class action lawsuit of US$5 million was commenced by Los Angeles County resident Gor Gevorkyan against Bitmain where it was alleged that Bitmain mined cryptocurrency for its own benefit on its customers’ devices. It was alleged by the Plaintiffs in this case that Bitmain is benefiting—without authorization—from the lengthy "initialization" period that its ASIC [Application-Specific Integrated Circuit] devices need for set up: "Until the complicated and time-consuming initialization procedures are completed, Bitmain's ASIC [Application-Specific Integrated Circuit] devices are preconfigured to use its customers’ electricity to generate cryptocurrency for the benefit of Bitmain rather than its customers."
