Craig Wright Ordered to Pay $100 Million — Just 0.2% Of Plaintiff’s Claim

A US jury has ordered Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, to pay $100 million in damages on Monday to the family of the late David Kleinman. Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, was taken to court by Kleninman’s family, alleging that Wright owed half of “Satoshi’s” Bitcoin holdings for cheating Kleinman over the intellectual property rights to the cryptocurrency.

The Court Rejected Many of Wright’s Claims

Following a three-week trial, jurors in Miami federal court deliberated for about a week before reach Monday’s verdict. Most of Wright’s claims were rejected, and the outcome is unlikely to settle the debate over whether Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto.

The Kleinman estate initially pursued half of the 1.1 million Bitcoins ($53 billion) held in an untouched wallet believed to be owned by Satoshi. The prosecution claimed that Kleiman was entitled to half of Satoshi’s fortune as co-creator of the digital asset. However, the jurors sided with Wright and denied Kleiman’s estate any cryptocurrency. They instead found Wright liable only for conversion and awarded $100 million in damages to W&K Info Defense Research.

This amounted to a reduction of 99.8% from the original plea from the plaintiffs. Both Kleiman and Wright are alleged to have collaborated while working for the company. Following the verdict, Wright posted a video on Twitter expressing his joy and relief at the outcome.

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Are Wright’s Claims Substantiated?

Despite having the judgment go in his favor to an extent, Monday’s verdict does not definitively answer the question over Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Many in the crypto community are still skeptical of his claim. This is in part due to the inactivity of the wallet where the Satoshi coins are held. To many observers, losing the verdict and being forced to secure the fortune from this wallet would have been the true test.

The mystery surrounding Bitcoin’s creation is one of the reasons why this civil suit case drew so much media attention. Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 published a nine-page whitepaper detailing a vision for Bitcoin — a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”. He envisioned a decentralized system where the digital asset would operate outside the reach and influence of the government.

A few months later, Nakamoto released software that enabled users to mine cryptocurrency. He also collaborated with other developers and coders online to improve the platform. This continued until 2011 when he abruptly vanished after emailing fellow collaborators that he had moved on to other things. Before disappearing, the enigmatic creator is thought to have mined up to 1.1 million Bitcoin. The revolutionary technology has since grown to become the 9th largest asset globally.

Since his exit from the scene, the ever-growing crypto community has speculated who Nakamoto could be. The anonymity provided by the technology has made it difficult to pinpoint his identity. Many believe the name — Satoshi Nakamoto — is a pseudonym, and could refer to a man, a woman, or a group of people.

With Bitcoin now considered by some to be better than gold to hedge inflation, many observers will keep a watchful eye on Wright. He has promised to prove his claims and says he intends to donate a portion of his Bitcoin fortune to charity.

Do you think Wright’s victory validates his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know in the comments below.