Monday’s court order against Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist and crypto entrepreneur who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, struck a blow to Wright’s claims that he created Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
While U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ruled against Wright in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, ordering him to forfeit half of his Bitcoin fortune, currently worth an estimated $7.8 billion, to the estate of Wright’s former business partner, David Kleiman, the defeated Wright says the ruling proves he’s Satoshi.
Through his spokesperson Ed Pownall, Wright told Bloomberg that only Satoshi could cough up the 410,000 Bitcoin he’s been ordered to surrender – half of the total BTC he had mined as an early supporter of the new technology.
According to Pownall,
“Otherwise, [Craig] couldn’t have them in the first place.”
Judge Reinhart, however, cast a shadow of doubt over Wright’s integrity and testimony.
He writes,
“Dr. Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone who was telling the truth. There is a strong and unrebutted circumstantial inference that Dr. Wright willfully created fraudulent documents.”
He also noted that it was “not his job” to determine if Wright is Satoshi or if he actually has the Bitcoin he’s been ordered to turn over to the estate.
“Two preliminary points. First, the Court is not required to decide, and does not decide,whether Defendant Dr. Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of the Bitcoincybercurrency. The Court also is not required to decide, and does not decide, how much bitcoin,if any, Dr. Wright controls today.”
View the court order
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