With the ruling coming in on August 26th in the case of Craig Wright, a controversial Australian computer scientist and supporter of , also known as 'Faketoshi', one may think that this episode in the Cryptosphere is over – but it's far from it. If anything, this may be just a beginning of various unanswered questions and issues demanding a resolution. As a myriad of questions remain unanswered, so let's go through the major issues.
What happened?
As reported, during the hearing held in Florida, the judge reportedly rejected Wright's testimony, finding that Wright had committed perjury and falsified documents, and Wright may lose a whopping 50% of the tokens he mined with his now-deceased business partner, David Kleiman (reportedly around BTC 1.1 million (USD 11.2 billion) in total). This is only a part of a much larger and ongoing case to decide the custody of the accumulated Wright-Kleiman fortune, with Ira Kleiman, brother of David Kleiman, suing Wright for the BTC holdings Wright allegedly stole after his partner’s death.
However, attorney Bill Smith tweeted that “whatever happened at the csw [Craig Wright] hearing today - it doesn't really matter until the actual federal judge reduces it to an Order,” given that it appears that a magistrate judge held the hearing, whose “main role is to try and help settle cases” and “assist the federal judge and clear his/her docket.” The federal judges “see the worst of humanity and thus aren't easily fooled by someone like csw,” Smith says.
The decision made today is a sanction. Basically, Reinhart has established certain facts of the case. The jury will be instructed to consider these as uncontested facts and the defense barred from arguments which contradict them.
Wright can have an opinion. He rules on nothing.
— cryptocached (@cryptocached) August 27, 2019
The Kleiman family has waited a long time to recover assets that should have been returned to it shortly after Dave’s unfortunate death in 2013. Today’s ruling marks an important step in the right direction. @KyleWRoche
— Vel Freedman (@VelvelFreedman) August 26, 2019
It will also be interesting to see how this particular judgement will affect other ongoing proceedings involving Wright, though it may be possible that this will have a lesser impact than the Order by a federal judge.
Does Wright have those coins?
Many people believe that Wright does not actually own any BTC and that he didn’t prove that he has access to any coins. Some people find that, according to the interview Wright gave, he might transfer the BTC from the “Tulip Trust” allegedly holding BTC that Wright and Kleiman mined between 2009 and 2011.
Bitcoin Math: 50% of 0 = 0
BSV Math: 50% of 0 = $5 billion pic.twitter.com/ZLr5qccr1e
— WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) August 27, 2019
50% of 0 = 0 * x
50% of 0 = $5B * x
BSV = x
TL;DR 50% of BSV = 0 of BTC#CraigWrightIsAFraud pic.twitter.com/fqa4drSrnX
— Daniel Vasilev ??? (@dlvasilev) August 27, 2019
On the question if he has the money to pay Kleiman, Wright replied: “If the court makes an order, I will comply with the order. And the court has made an order. It’s that simple,” adding “I own a lot of BTC. Dave should have owned 320,000 and I should have had 800,000 and now it’s 50/50. At the end of the day, that’s not a good thing for BTC.”
The interviewer asked Wright if this affects the so-called “Satoshi Blocks” of unmoved bitcoins in the blockchain, and if this means that the blocks that haven’t moved since 2009 will now get transferred, to which Wright replied “Not at least, just under half. Because they’ll have to come out of partnership. I spent more money on the project than Dave, so I will rule on that and effectively Ira will get maybe 480,000 BTC.” He added that this does not include BTC, , and BSV and other BTC forks, because, “according to the judge it’s only from before Dave died, so only BTC. Sorry BTC.”
What if Kleiman does receive the coins?
While we don't know yet what Kleiman would do with BTC 500,000 he theoretically might get, what is more sure is that he will need to pay taxes. While some speculate it might be USD 2 billion, others claim that more realistically it would be around USD 3 million - USD 20 million.
The fact is Dave Kleiman’s estate owed any tax due at the time of his death in USD not BTC. He died April 26, 2013 when BTC was about $100, so his 500k of BTC was worth $50m and 40% tax = $20m. They can dump that without a market blip...
— BitTradr (@BitTradr) August 27, 2019
Meanwhile, attorney Smith speculates that Kleiman may be able recover his attorney fees and it may be possible for Kleiman to get the federal judge to reduce his judgment to a USD monetary amount. “Kleiman surely knows he is not getting any Bitcoin,” says Smith, “but he maybe able to get a judgment for the USD value + his attorney fees,” and if that happens, “he will have a judgment for ALOT of money hung around faketoshis neck forever. Whatever he has, whatever he earns...it's kleimans...and the lack of actual Bitcoin is irrelevant.” Smith concludes with: “Get your popcorn ready. Fraud doesn't pay folks.”
He also says in that interview that he has had access to his BTC fortune from day 1 and hasn’t tanked the market already because he is “nice”. He literally can’t speak a single sentence without lying. Fucking criminal should be executed imo.
— Official Satoshi Nakamoto IV (@trackpantsboner) August 27, 2019
What did the judge say exactly about Wright being Satoshi?
The transcript from the hearing is not out yet, though many people wish to see what exactly was said and in what regards was Wright treated. The Twitter user who claims to have attended the latest court hearing said that the presiding judge, Bruce Reinhart, was “brutal in his remarks” against Wright “while commending his attorneys for dealing with him.”
Wright did say in the interview with Modern Consensus though that “The judge won’t rule on whether I’m Satoshi. But the partnership is. So when Dave Kleiman passed, the partnership transferred to Ira.”
While the Cryptoverse rejects this idea, and the judge in his hearing may be inclined to agree (this remains to be clarified), others are still discussing alternative theories, jokingly and otherwise. Wright said that he’s not going to complain for getting to keep billions in USD, adding “And I’m the only surviving member of Satoshi? The judge ruled it was a partnership. I’m the asshole Satoshi. And Dave was the nice one.” Discussions continue.
Actually he attempted fraud by declaring just himself to be satoshi where infect both of them were satoshi, from what I’ve read he’s tried to make out he was satoshi in order that he could keep the 1.1 million coins, now the dilemma is that the blind trust must release keys now
— Lionel (@Lionel46294550) August 27, 2019
The US court *did NOT* rule that Wright/Kleiman were Satoshi Nakamoto
Anyone telling you otherwise is either insane or a liar.
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) August 27, 2019
They're insane...when CW wouldn't produce the public keys for the btc Genesis Wallet in 2014 after a judge told him to put up or shut-up: we all knew he was a fraud. He cited privacy concerns...lol; it's the public keys not the private. I wonder if he realizes how btc works ...
— shar53 (@tyvin8) August 27, 2019
Devin Freedman, the lawyer representing the Kleiman estate, was not available for immediate comment.
