Craig Wright claims to possess keys to $8 billion worth Bitcoin

Lawyers of Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claims to have invented Bitcoin, have said that Wright has received the digital keys to a fortune, which would give him access to around $8 billion worth Bitcoin. If true, this would enable Wright to complete the payment that he allegedly owed to the estate of his ex-business partner, which has sued him for about half of that. 

The notice of compliance that was filed in the Southern District of Florida says that “Dr. Wright notifies the Court that a third party has provided the necessary information and key slice to unlock the encrypted file, and Wright has produced a list of his bitcoin holdings, as ordered by the Magistrate Judge, to plaintiffs today.”

For the past year, Wright has been involved in a lawsuit with Ira Kleiman. According to Wright, he invented Bitcoin with Kleiman. After learning about Wright’s supposed identity, Kleiman sued Wright stating that his estate should be entitled to roughly half of the one million Bitcoins, which Wright claims to have mined in the early days of Bitcoin. 

However, Wright has said that he’s not able to access the Bitcoin trove as it has been moved to a blind trust. He added that a “bonded courier” will deliver the find keys by the end of January 2020. The Florida judge, having already deemed Wright “not credible” to provide documents in a deposition that appeared to have been forged, has given Wright time till February 3 to wait for the courier. 

The court has also urged Wright to pay 500,000 Bitcoin (around $4 billion) that is allegedly owed to Kleiman. Wright, who had first agreed to pay the settlement amount, has now abandoned it as he was not able to finance it, and the trial has begun anew.