Home ›› 08 Dec 2021 ›› World Biz
A computer scientist who claims to have invented Bitcoin has won a court dispute that would allow him to keep a billion-dollar cache of the cryptocurrency.
Craig Wright's former business partner claimed he was entitled to half of the assets, but the jury dismissed the allegation, BBC reported on Wednesday.
As a result, Wright will keep 1.1 million Bitcoins, valued $54 billion (£40 billion).
He will, however, pay Dave Kleiman’s family $100 million for infringement of intellectual property.
According to the family of Kleiman, a computer security expert who died in 2013, the two men collaborated to build and mine the first Bitcoin, which Wright then stole.
In 2008, the invention of the cryptocurrency was described in a white paper published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Wright has claimed to be Nakamoto since 2016, albeit this allegation has been debunked.
In the civil lawsuit, a Miami jury found Wright not guilty on nearly all of the allegations made by Kleiman's family.
Lawyers for W&K and Kleiman's estate said in a statement that they were "immensely gratified" that the jury granted the $100 million in intellectual property rights, allowing the Kleimans to get "their rightful part of what Dave helped create."
Wright claimed the judicial decision proved he was the inventor of the groundbreaking digital asset.
"The jury has obviously found that I am because there would have been no award otherwise," Wright said.
"This has been a remarkable good outcome and I feel completely vindicated," he added.
