A man who claims to be the inventor of bitcoin has just won a key US court dispute, preventing him from having to pay tens of billions of dollars in bitcoin to a former business partner.
In a 2016 blog post, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright hinted that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the person or people who invented bitcoin. Many of those in the cryptocurrency world are doubtful of Wright’s allegation, in part because he hasn’t transferred any of Satoshi’s early bitcoin.
Wright won a court case in Miami on Monday in which he was pitted against the family of his late business partner and computer forensics expert, David Kleiman.
Half of Satoshi’s 1.1 million bitcoins, valued about $54 billion, were on the line. The estate also claimed ownership of some of the early blockchain technology’s intellectual property.
The prosecution claimed that Kleiman and Wright were co-creators of bitcoin, giving him half of Satoshi’s alleged income. A federal jury in West Palm Beach sided with Wright and denied Kleiman’s estate any of the bitcoin.
Wright, on the other hand, was forced to pay $100 million in compensatory damages for a breach of intellectual property rights involving W&K Info Defense Research LLC, the two men’s joint business. Rather of going to the Kleiman estate, that money will go directly to W&K.
“We are immensely gratified that our client, W&K Information Defense Research LLC, has won $100,000,000 reflecting that Craig Wright wrongfully took bitcoin-related assets from W&K,” said counsel for W&K.
“This has been a remarkably good outcome, and I feel completely vindicated,” Wright said in a video posted to Twitter immediately after the verdict.
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