Satoshi Disciple / Bitcoin Inventor Wins Legal Battle, Pockets $56 Billion

Bitcoin‘s emergence is one of the decade’s most fascinating and enigmatic stories. Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System in late 2008. Nakamoto’s identity remains the holy grail for many bitcoin aficionados.

A recent Florida lawsuit may provide answers. Satoshi Nakamoto is Craig Steven Wright, according to Ira Kleiman v. Craig Wright. Wright owes David Kleiman’s estate half of his 1.1 million bitcoins, then worth $56 billion. The jury sided with Wright, giving him custody of the bitcoins.

First-ever bitcoins. Does that prove Wright’s claim that he created the most popular cryptocurrency? Nakamoto’s mystery: solved? Does Wright or the bitcoin community care with $50 billion in the bank?

Craig Wright and David Kleiman

While the case was about money, cryptocurrency and fintech enthusiasts see broader consequences. If Wright invented Bitcoin, the most valuable and generally accepted cryptocurrency, a tech mystery is solved.

Who’s involved?

IT and security expert Craig Wright. He’s a prominent Bitcoin speaker and author. He has over 3000 blockchain-related patents and taught computer science in Australia.

David Kleiman was an IT and cryptography expert. His Windows encryption solution was adopted by the Treasury Department, the Postal Service, and NASA. Kleiman died in 2013 after more than two years in the hospital due to motorbike accident injuries.

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Wright and Kleiman were acquaintances in the mid-1990s, before Bitcoin’s birth. Beyond that, it’s unclear. The lawsuit sprang from this friendship. According to Kleiman’s family, Wright and Kleiman were formal business partners, entitling Kleiman to business gains.

Wright and Kleiman mined the disputed bitcoin in 2009 as W&K Info Defense Research LLC (W for Wright, K for Kleiman). Wright refers to Kleiman as his boyfriend and best friend in hundreds of e-mails to Kleiman, his family, and Australian government officials.

Wright said no formal partnership existed. Wright’s autism (discovered in 2018) hampers his understanding of terminology like a partner, his lawyers say.

A Florida jury held Wright not guilty for breach of partnership, fraud, or civil theft. However, he owed W&K $100 million for stealing its intellectual property (conversion).

The verdict: Is Wright Nakamoto?

Much of the case’s evidence is sealed. Court files and the trial have revealed enough to raise questions about whether Wright is Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin.

Wright emailed Kleiman’s father shortly after his death. Wright wrote, “Your son and I are two of Bitcoin’s three crucial persons.” He urged the elder Kleiman to find and safeguard Dave’s wallet, a private crypto wallet separate from public wallets.

Who’s #3? Wright’s deposition testimony is sealed, but he declined to name the third person for “national security” reasons. Wright said the person was a dead government informer. This email and testimony simply raise further questions about Nakamoto’s identity.

The evidence contradicts Wright’s statements. One forensics expert testified that many of the emails in the case were forgeries, including one in which Wright asks Kleiman to modify a paper on electronic money. …” The email came from Wright’s own domain @rcjbr.og in 2008. The domain was created in 2011. The forgery’s genesis is a mystery.

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Wright’s claim is undermined by missing evidence. Wright hasn’t shown he’s Nakamoto. None of Wright and Kleiman’s e-mails contain drafts of the 2008 Nakamoto paper.

Wright has never shown he registered bitcoin.com in 2008, nor has he disclosed Nakamoto’s private keys despite promises. Bitcoin developer Gavin Andersen testified that Wright’s “gobbledygook evidence” was a trick, not a falsehood. Andersen thinks Wright is Nakamoto.

We can’t cover all differences and questions here. The case documents are like a Dan Brown novel. Despite Wright’s lawyers’ claims that the jury verdict proved Wright and Nakamoto are the same, the evidence doesn’t establish it.