I sat down with Jihan yesterday. We were both at a small conference in Singapore. I also met with the CEO of PoEx / Canaan. While he competes with Jihan, he confirmed what Jihan told me.
It’s a banking requirement necessary for a potential IPO. An 3rd party audit is required (by PWC, etc) to verify sales numbers. It’s common practice for company to fudge numbers by selling a large volume of product to a 3rd party, or group of them, that are essentially owned by the seller. It’s selling to yourself to make your numbers look better to investors. Steve (Canaan) has to go through a similar process.
Someone should build an audit solution that uses zkps!