Bitcoin ‘inventor’ wins right to keep cache worth billions of dollars
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin ‘inventor’ Craig Wright has won a court case allowing him to retain a cache of the cryptocurrency worth billions of dollars. Wright will now keep 1.1mn Bitcoin worth $54 billion, however, he will pay $100 million to the family of late Dave Kleiman for infringement of intellectual property rights. The civil lawsuit against Wright was filed by Kleiman’s family, who claimed that 50% of the assets belonged to Kleiman.
However, the court in its ruling, rejected the claims of Kleiman’s family and declined to offer any of the bitcoin to Kleiman’s estate. The jury from a Miami court cleared that Wright of all accusations brought by Kleiman’s family. However, Wright will be required to pay compensatory damages over a breach of intellectual property rights related to W&K Info Defence Research LLC, a joint venture between Wright and Kleiman.
W&K counsel expressed “immense” gratification for the recovery of the $100mn worth of intellectual property saying that “Craig wrongfully tool bitcoin-related assets” from the company, BBC reported. The court confirmed that the Australian computer scientist, Wright, was the legal owner of the digital assets, BBC reported. Calling it a “remarkably good outcome,” Wright told that he feels “completely vindicated.”
The Bitcoin mystery
The court ruling drew much attention due to the solved mystery of the founder of Bitcoin. The digital currency was created in 2008, leaving a lot of speculation over the pseudonym of the creator. As the US market was taking hold after the global financial crisis, Satoshi Nakamoto, who Craig allegedly claims to be, published a nine-page white paper detailing his vision. As reported by CNBC, Nakamoto “moved on to other things” in 2011 after emailing a few developers.
However, as the Miami court indirectly indicates Wright as the creator of Bitcoin by handing him the rights of the cache coins worth $54 billion, there is still no direct regard as Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto. It is pertinent to mention that had Wright not won the case he would have had to pay Kleiman’s estate the entire amount but the Australian computer scientist was confident. He had also promised that on winning the case he would donate the majority of the bitcoin fortune to charity.
