Last week, a WeChat put up revealed by the Shanghai Fengxian Court started circulating in crypto circles close to its current ruling on a car sale in May 2019 made using digital foreign money. At the time, the customer, recognized solely as Mr. Huang, signed a gross sales contract to buy a 2019 Audi AL6 for CNY 409,800 ($59.477) in alternate for the consideration of 1,281 Unihash (UNIH) tokens with an undisclosed car dealership in Shanghai. Per the unique contract, the vendor was to ship the car to Huang inside three months’ time.
According to the Shanghai Fengxian Court, Mr. Huang paid 1,281 UNIH on the date of the contract signing however didn’t obtain the car inside the specified length nor afterwards. As a outcome, Mr. Huang took the vendor to court, demanding the supply of the automobile and the cost of 0.66% day by day curiosity of the transaction quantity in damages for on a regular basis that the car went undelivered past the unique deadline.
The case took over three years earlier than a verdict was reached this June. Citing laws in September 2017 that advanced into what is understood now as China’s cryptocurrency ban, the Shanghai Fengxian Court mentioned that digital property “cannot and should not be used as a currency for circulation in the markets,” and that the usage of digital tokens comparable to UNIH in lieu of fiat cash as consideration in on a regular basis contracts was in breach of respective regulation that overrides such contracts themselves. Therefore, the gross sales contract was dominated to be null and void. The purchaser was neither granted damages, supply of the car, nor a refund of his 1,281 UNIH.
It’s unclear as to how the vendor agreed to a conversion fee of 1 UNIH = CNY 320 as stipulated within the unique contract within the first place. Unihash was supposedly a digital cost token developed for e-commerce in 2018 and was solely accessible to non-public buyers with no public preliminary coin providing. Shortly after its launch, allegations rapidly surfaced on Chinese social media that labeled the undertaking to be a “scam” and that its token metrics, in addition to firm historical past, had allegedly been grossly inflated to solicit buyers.
Currently, the undertaking seems to be deserted with no hyperlink to socials, no market itemizing, and no additional improvement exercise. Moreover, the agency behind UNIH didn’t accomplish any of its targets listed in its unique whitepaper. One such promise made to buyers within the doc included: “What can be certain is that the Unihash token can appear on several exchanges by Q4 2019.”