Bitcoin 'creator' slapped with $10 billion lawsuit


Craig Wright, the Australian who has previously claimed to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is the subject of a multi billion dollar lawsuit. Wright is being sued by the estate of David Kleiman, who was thought to have co-created the cryptocurrency with the Australian. Kleiman passed away in 2013, but Kleiman's brother Ira claims that Wright somehow appropriated his former partner's bitcoin hoard.

According to Motherboard, either Wright and Kleiman were involved in the creation of Bitcoin, or were there moments after the platform was created. Consequently, they apparently had access to mining tools at its earliest time, enabling them to rack up a small fortune in cryptocurrency. The pair are thought to have controlled anything up to 1.1 million BTC, although it's clear that nobody knows the figures for sure.

The case itself centers on Wright's conduct shortly after Kleiman died in 2013, and Wright subsequently contacted Kleiman's elderly father. Wright stands accused of fraudulently claiming that David Kleiman had signed over ownership and control of W&K, a company Kleiman ran, to Wright. He supported this with documents that, as far as Ira Kleiman is concerned, were fraudulent, and signed with a fake signature.

The lawsuit contends that the value of the contentious Bitcoin, and any associated intellectual property, is worth anything between $5 billion and $10 billion. It also claims that Wright once admitted that the signature used on the documents was computer-generated. The document also highlight's Wright's history of problems with the Australian Tax Authorities that included the back-dating of crucial documents.

Wright himself is a colorful figure in the Bitcoin community, who made a name for himself when he "outed" himself as Nakamoto in 2016. After inviting the BBC, The Economist and GQ to a meeting, he produced evidence that he was in fact the creator of Bitcoin, verified by the Bitcoin foundation's Gavin Andresen. This claim was then torn to shreds by other researchers, who claimed the purported evidence was publicly-available. Days later, Wright withdrew his claim, saying that he lacked "the courage," to prove he was Nakamoto.

In the subsequent fallout, Wright was subject to intensive scrutiny that painted the computer scientist as something of a fabulist. His Ph.D. credentials were found to be questionable, and companies he claimed to have worked with professed to having never worked with him The achievements on his LinkedIn profile were subsequently erased and questions remain as to if he was the creator of Bitcoin, or simply had too much free time on his hands.

Via: The Guardian

Source: Motherboard

via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2GQzZgf"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more