Michaela Alvez
Zama CEO Rand Hindi has addressed allegations from Sunscreen, receiving public backing from Shiba Inu leader Kaal Dhairya, who expressed strong support for Hindi and his company.
The case between Zama and Sunscreen revolves around a legal dispute regarding the ownership of a key piece of encryption technology called “programmable bootstrapping,” which is part of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE).
In a post on X dated December 20, Sunscreen Tech disclosed that it received a legal notice from Zama’s legal team on December 3. The notice accuses Sunscreen of disparagement and patent infringement in France. Sunscreen dismissed the claims as baseless, alleging that the notice follows over six months of what they describe as a sustained campaign of harassment against their company and investors.
Sunscreen further claimed that Zama is attempting to censor free speech and scientific discussions. The privacy-focused technology company alleged that Sunscreen’s technical comparisons between Zama’s offerings and its TFHE library during the zkSummit12 presentation constitute “disparagement.” Zama is reportedly seeking financial compensation as part of its demands, escalating tensions in the ongoing dispute between the two firms.
Sunscreen called these claims “absurd and offensive.” In its formal notice, Zama referenced European patent EP4150852, claiming exclusive rights to the technique widely known as programmable bootstrapping.
In response to Sunscreen’s post on X, Rand Hindi issued a statement addressing and clarifying the allegations made by the company. Hindi emphasized that Zama consistently maintained transparency regarding its business model, stating that the company allows free use of its technology for research, prototyping, and personal projects. However, he clarified that commercial applications require obtaining a proper license.
The CEO highlighted that thousands of developers and researchers have utilized Zama’s code for non-commercial purposes, while dozens of customers have acquired licenses for commercial use. He clarified that Zama has never denied a license request and noted that the company has even collaborated with competitors in the industry.
Hindi described the situation as “a simple case of a company using another company’s technology without a proper license.”
Hindi also noted that Sunscreen publicly claimed in blog posts and discussions with investors that their version of FHE was superior to Zama’s. However, since the code was not open source, it was impossible to verify these claims.
Earlier this year, Sunscreen released an implementation of TFHE on their GitHub. Zama found that it not only replicated their core technology and programmable bootstrapping, but also included some bugs from an earlier version of Zama’s implementation.
Hindi mentioned that he made multiple attempts to reach out to Rivital Solomon, the CEO of Sunscreen Tech, to clarify the company’s use of Zama’s technology. However, after Sunscreen made it clear they were not interested in collaborating, Hindi instructed the company to remove Zama’s technology from their codebase. Following this request, the company stopped responding to Hindi’s attempts to clarify the situation.
Several days later, Zama received an official letter from Sunscreen’s legal team, warning of a lawsuit for “tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and interference with contractual relations under the laws of California (and other jurisdictions).”
Dhairya responded to Hindi’s post, expressing his full support for Zama, emphasizing their “commitment to innovation, transparency, and collaboration.”
“Years of research, open licensing, and fair practices can’t be ignored and there’s nothing wrong with safeguarding your tech and earning a fair return; that’s how innovation thrives,” he wrote.
The Shiba Inu leader expressed his gratitude for the FHE solutions that are relied upon daily.
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Michaela has no crypto positions and does not hold any crypto assets. This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The Shib Magazine and The Shib Daily are the official media and publications of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency project. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
