Craig Wright, the self-professed inventor of Bitcoin (BTC), has less than a month to prove he can unlock 1.1 million BTC and show the world that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.
US judge Beth Bloom is giving the Australian computer scientist until February 3rd to access about $9.2 billion worth of Bitcoin said to be locked in a “Tulip Trust,” an encrypted document that holds the keys to the BTC that Wright and Kleiman mined together. Their two cryptographic signatures are required to unlock it.
Wright claims a “bonded courier” who possesses the keys that can unlock the encrypted Tulip Trust will arrive this month. Until the courier makes an appearance, Wright says that the trust remains inaccessible.
According to the court ruling,
“In light of the Defendant’s representations that the bonded courier is scheduled to arrive in January 2020, the Court will permit the Defendant through and including February 3, 2020, to file a notice with the Court indicating whether or not this mysterious figure has appeared from the shadows and whether the Defendant now has access to the last key slice needed to unlock the encrypted file.
In the event this occurs, and further if the Defendant produces his list of Bitcoin Holdings as ordered by the Magistrate Judge, then this Court will not impose any additional sanctions.”
Should the mysterious courier provide the keys to unlock the Tulip Trust, Craig Wright would have ammunition to prove that he is indeed the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.
The ruling is part of the lawsuit filed by Ira Kleiman, brother of Wright’s deceased business partner David Kleiman, against Wright. At the heart of the case is the alleged theft of 1.1 million BTC by Wright from the late David Kleiman.
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