Kanye West has made attempts to shut down the virtual currency that uses his name. The anonymous programmers behind the Bitcoin alternative Coinye West have reportedly received lawyers' letters accusing them of infringing on the rapper's trademark.

Billed as a "PROPER and FAIR ... [currency] for the masses", Coinye West was due to get its official launch on 11 January. But after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from West's law firm, Pryor Cashman, the cryptocurrency's creators pushed forward the release, issuing the first coins last night. "WHO GON STOP ME HUH" they tweeted. "Coinye feelin' the heat, gonna spread what we got so far before the bigwigs steal our work!!"

Just a day before, according to the Wall Street Journal, seven of Coinye's coders received letters from West's attorney Brad D Rose. This notice accused them of trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and cyberpiracy. "Given Mr West's wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr West is the source of your services or is, as the very least ... [had] endorsed the cryptocurrency," Rose wrote.

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West "seeks to resolve this matter without resort to litigation", Rose explained. But in order to avoid a lawsuit, Coinye's inventors will have to shut the whole thing down: ending "development, sale, distribution and promotion" of all Coinye West products and services, deactivating their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and transferring the coinyewest.com website into West's hands.

If they do not obey, Rose wrote, the rapper's lawyers will not just pursue claims against Coinye West's inventors; they will "notify the cryptocurrency community at large of [Coinye's] infringing actions" and sue any business that accepts the novelty currency. According to the United States' Lanham Trademark Act, West is apparently eligible for an award of treble damages, plus attorney's fees and costs.

So far at least, Coinye West's intrepid techno-economists have made only one concession, changing the currency's name from Coinye West to simply Coinye. Their main website has shifted accordingly, to coinyeco.in. "We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it," one coder told the Wall Street Journal. "They'll still come after us, but that's OK."