This revelation could be the by-product of a run-of-the-mill trial currently playing out in Florida involving the family of a deceased man suing his former business partner regarding control of their shared assets. The assets here are a cache of about one million bitcoins, worth $64 billion as of today, which belongs to bitcoin creator, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. According to the family, the deceased man and business partner were Nakamoto, thus making the family entitled to half of the fortune.
The real Satoshi Nakamoto has been a riddle for years now, whether just a single person or multiple people is also not known? To date, no penny from the crypto earnings has been utilized by whoever Satoshi Nakamoto is, making the mystery even more intense.
Florida trial seeks answers to many such questions and several others related to bitcoin itself. Now that Bitcoin has become a trillion-dollar market, with tens of multitudes of investors, the whole global economy stands to get affected by the trial results. Governmental institutions have a varied approach towards this new form of currency, with some ready for adoption while others are averse to it. Despite creating ripples the world over, the creators are unknown till now.
Who will control this fortune?
And that is all before you get to who controls one of the largest private fortunes in the world.
The jury at Florida has a challenging task ahead-ascertaining the ownership of this large private fortune. David Kleiman’s family, suing his former business partner, Craig Wright, a 51-year-old Australian programmer, is living in London. Though Mr. Wright has claimed that he is the creator of bitcoin, there are no takers for t in the bitcoin community. Now Mr. Kleiman’s family says that the two of them worked on and mined bitcoin such that Mr. Kleiman’s family is entitled to half a million bitcoins.
The creation of Bitcoin
The creation of the bitcoin dates back to 2008, and the creator was announced as Satoshi Nakamoto, though his real identity was shrouded in mystery then and now. Transactions happen through peer-to-peer networks without the need for a bank as an intermediary.
The lawyer for the Kleiman family says they have evidence to prove a partnership to create and mine over one million bitcoins, and the two of them have worked together since the conceptualization and delivery. The lawyer observing the trial says that the trial is about a friend trying to take away all partnership assets upon the death of his long-time partner. The defense lawyer will plead that Mr. Kleiman was nowhere in the picture and that Mr. Wright is the sole creator of bitcoin. The case now rests on that crucial piece of evidence: the private key that controls the account where Nakamoto has stored the one million bitcoins.
Only that could prove the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Anyone claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto must have possession of this evidence.
All bitcoin transactions are publicly visible on the blockchain ledger. The movement of currency is controlled by two strings, a public key, and a private key. Bitcoins can be sent to the public key, or in other words, the destination address, just like a bank account. However, only the person who controls the account has the private key, and the ownership rests.
