ZKSync Development Company Matter Labs Sued for Alleged Intellectual Property Theft

BlockBeats News, April 22nd, according to CoinDesk's report, ZKsync developer Matter Labs has been sued by the defunct digital asset bank platform BANKEX for intellectual property theft. According to the lawsuit, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin contacted BANKEX in 2017 to commission the development of the "Plasma" technology's operating software. At that time, this technology was seen as a solution to reduce Ethereum's usage costs. Vlasov and Korolev, as BANKEX employees, were assigned by CEO Igor Khmel to lead the project. However, the two were accused of secretly establishing a competing company, Matter Labs, with the intention to profit from BANKEX's blockchain technology and directly compete with BANKEX.

The lawsuit further alleges that the two individuals used BANKEX's resources and funds to transfer technical secrets to Matter Labs and develop the storage operation codebase. According to LinkedIn profiles, Vlasov is now the Head of R&D at Matter Labs, while Korolev is the founder of the blockchain security company OXORIO. Also named in the lawsuit are Matter Labs co-founder Alex Gluchowski, crypto-native investment fund Dragonfly, and Placeholder Capital partner and former Matter Labs board member Chris Burniske, based on their alleged involvement or knowledge of the theft.

A spokesperson for Matter Labs stated that these allegations are "baseless" and that ZKsync is original technology unrelated to any code developed by BANKEX.