A federal court has ruled that self-acclaimed BTC founder, Dr. Craig Wright, will have to cough out $100m in damages. However, the court couldn’t find any evidence that nailed Wright with a breach of the partnership between him and his former partner, the late Dave Kleiman.
The $100m Saga
While the Wright vs. Kleiman trial was still in court, the W&K info defense (a company owned by the two partners) was alleged to have mined 1.2 BTC. Wright was also found guilty of exercising full ownership rights over property belonging to his now-deceased partner.
One of the primary objectives of the case was to determine what happens to mined BTC. Ira Kleiman (a sibling to Dave Kleiman who was a major partner with Craig Wright) took legal action against Wright following the death of Dave Kleiman before his death eight years ago.
Ira Kleiman alleged that Wright was swindling his deceased partner through the Kleiman estate, which was one of the reasons Ira took over the estate. Ira prayed the court to give her the intellectual property to the mined BTC and 50% of the proceeds from the mined BTC.
However, not everyone agreed with the outcome of the case. Stephen Palley, a co-founder at Anderson Kill, opined that the jury wasn’t fair to Wright in delivering the judgment for the case even though Wright stated otherwise.
Wright revealed via a video, saying, “I feel very much relieved with this outcome. However, the fight is not over. I will still go ahead with making my original invention become a reality. I am here for the long haul.” The mined BTC were among the uniquely created ones and are an exclusive reserve of an individual or group who mined one of the first BTC since its inception.
Wright Still Claims He Was Not Kleiman’s Business Partner
He claimed that Kleiman was one of his friends but not his business partner and that Kleiman’s only role was to proofread the crypto’s white paper. Wright also alleged that he offered the Kleiman estate $12m with the cryptocurrency worth only $200 at that time. It has to be noted that the focus of this case wasn’t to uncover the original identity of the bitcoin founder.
While the Kleiman estate maintained that creating the token was a collaboration between the two friends, Wright’s defense counsel claimed that Wright worked independently to create bitcoin. The crypto ecosystem is yet to disclose the bitcoin creator’s original identity fully.
Even though Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, many BTC investors have proved that he isn’t the original Nakamoto. Based on his antecedents, it is likely that Wright will still be claiming to be the original Satoshi Nakamoto.
He has vowed to prove that he is the real Nakamoto when the court saga is over. Now, the entire crypto community is waiting for him to make his proof. Wright first claimed to be the original Satoshi Nakamoto five years ago. But then, does the original identity of Nakamoto need to be known?
