Coinbase Seeks operational information from US Bitcoin companies

Coinbase's compliance office is putting efforts to obtain operational information from bitcoin mining companies, which is being framed as an infringement on their trade secrets.

MegaBigPower (MBP) and Bitmain have reported that the compliance office has asked for detailed information about their mining facilities, time-stamped photographs, videos of mining facilities and details about the origin of the hardware they employ.

An email sent to MBP owner Dave Carlson dated 25th March and obtained by CoinDesk read:

"As a followup to our previous inquiry, we need to conduct some additional due diligence. Towards that end, please complete and return the due diligence questionnaire attached to this email, and provide us with verifiable time-stamped images of your mining equipment and key infrastructure elements at your facility."

The Coinbase representative also said that a secure Dropbox could be provided to Carlson to send the details.

"Quite a lot of this information is competitively private information," Carlson told CoinDesk.