US students defend themselves against requesting bitcoin miner source code

Four students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have challenged a New Jersey state subpoena in US court that the authorities wanted to obtain the source code of their bitcoin mining tool Tidbit.

That writes Wired.com. Four students from MIT developed a bitcoin mining tool at the ‘Node Knockout Hackathon’ in 2013. The mining tool is designed for integration into web browsers. The idea is that individuals provide computing power from their computer for the mining tool and in return they will not see any advertisements on websites. The product Tidbit won the prize for the most innovative product during the competition.

The feature is reportedly unfinished, which means it won’t fully function either. Despite this, it has been discredited as Tidbit has been spotted by New Jersey authorities. They state that the students may have violated computer crime laws. There are no criminal charges, but New Jersey state authorities are demanding that all source code be released, along with other important documents. The students are supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which champions digital civil rights. It is a disturbing trend, according to the organization, for authorities to pursue researchers who try to support the tech world.

Only Jeremy Rubin would have been subpoenaed, because he registered the Tidbit website. No party would have made any money on the project because it never got off the ground. The students received a lot of support when announcing their legal battle at the beginning of this year: an MIT professor then sent a letter that would have been signed hundreds of times.