The cryptocurrency world is waiting with bated breath to see if self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright really is behind the code – or if he is simply a pretender.
The answer could be sealed in the document vault of a court in Florida, USA, where Wright faces a legal challenge from the estate of dead software developer Dave Kleiman.
The pair allegedly invented Bitcoin and mined the first tokens which they agreed to share.
This amounted to 1.1 million Bitcoin worth $10 billion.
Unfortunately, Kleiman died in 2013 and his family allege Wright forged his signature on documents that passed his Bitcoin fortune to Wright.
Mystery of the man behind Bitcoin
“The electronic signatures that appear on these documents are substantially different than known examples of Dave’s electronic and written signatures,” the complaint alleges. “This signature appears to be a near identical copy of a computer-generated font called Otto.”
The court has ordered wright to produce an inventory of all the Bitcoin he mined between the launch of the cryptocurrency in 2009 and Kleiman’s death.
The list is locked in the court vault while the proceedings continue.
If Wright can show he mined the tokens before 2013, then his argument that he is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the brains behind cryptocurrency, could be true.
The jury is out.
It could be Wright, it might be Kleiman, possibly both together or neither.
Vast wealth
The estate is suing Wright for half the 1.1 million Bitcoin stash and besides stealing the cryptocurrency, alleges he hijacked the intellectual property connected to Bitcoin.
“It is unclear whether Craig, Dave, and or both created Bitcoin. For reasons not yet completely clear, they chose to keep their involvement in Bitcoin hidden from most of their family and friends,” says Kleiman’s estate.
“It is undeniable, however, that Craig and Dave were involved in Bitcoin from its inception and that they both accumulated a vast wealth of Bitcoins from 2009 through 2013.”
The case is ongoing, but is due to come back to court on June 28, but if the identity of Nakamoto is to be revealed then is still unknown.