The court battle pits Ira Kleiman against Craig Wright, and at its heart, the argument surrounds who invented the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
A massive legal showdown has commenced in Miami — with Bitcoin worth billions of dollars at stake.
The court battle pits Ira Kleiman against Craig Wright, and at its heart, the argument surrounds who invented the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
Wright had repeatedly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.
But Kleiman alleges that his late brother David, who was also a computer expert and a good friend of Wright, was the cryptocurrency’s co-creator.
This matters because Satoshi Nakamoto has 1.1 million BTC in his possession — a stash that currently has a cash value of $69.4 billion.
Kleiman argues that his brother’s estate is entitled to half of this treasure trove — but even if the three-week civil trial rules in his favor, there’s no guarantee that the family will be able to get their hands on these funds.
Despite his proclamations, Wright has been unable to prove for certain that he is Satoshi Nakamoto — and the Australian entrepreneur has regularly launched legal proceedings against those who have questioned his statements.
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Murky Waters
Wright intends to prove his exclusive ownership of the 1.1 million BTC in question — and if successful in this case, he plans to “direct these funds to charitable use, lifting many in developing countries out of poverty.”
He claims he had to announce that he was Satoshi Nakamoto after others falsely claimed to be Bitcoin’s inventor — meaning “he had little choice but to defend his position and the original vision of Bitcoin.”
Although the main objective in this case is to determine whether Wright and Kleiman had a partnership, crypto enthusiasts will be keeping an eye out for clues that could determine Satoshi Nakamoto’s real identity.
Earlier this year, Wright took the pseudonymous operator of the Bitcoin.org website — one of the earliest pages to be associated with the cryptocurrency — to court in the U.K.
The entrepreneur had accused Bitcoin.org and Cøbra, its publisher, of copyright infringement because it hosted the Bitcoin white paper.
Because Cøbra declined to reveal publicly identify himself — meaning that he could not mount a defence in U.K. courts — Wright ended up winning a default judgment. Bitcoin.org was ordered to take down the whitepaper in the U.K. and pay legal costs.
