The true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could revealed in a Florida court, where a lawsuit over approximately $64billion worth of the cryptocurrency is underway.
The family of deceased David Kleiman has claimed that he and his former business partner together assumed the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and created Bitcoin.
Now, Kleiman's family is suing programmer Craig Wright, 51, for control of Kleiman's alleged share of Nakamoto's assets.
The family reportedly plans to provide evidence proving that Wright - who has claimed to be Bitcoin's creator since 2016 - and Kleiman worked together since the cryptocurrency's inception.
'We believe the evidence will show there was a partnership to create and mine over one million bitcoin,' Kleiman family lawyer Vel Freedman told the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, the defense aims to prove that Wright is the sole creator of Bitcoin.
'We believe the court will find there's nothing to indicate or record that they were in a partnership,' his lawyer Andrés Rivero explained.
The true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could be soon unveiled as a lawsuit over approximately $64billion worth of cryptocurrency is underway in Florida
Nakamoto's true identity has remained unknown since Bitcoin's inception.
In October 2008, an individual using the name reportedly wrote a nine-page letter to cryptographers explaining the electronic cash system and, a few months later, the Bitcoin network went live.
During the cryptocurrency's first year of operation, Nakamoto collected nearly one million bitcoins.
The creator, who was said to use two email addresses, remained active in Bitcoin's development process for neatly two years, writing on message boards and communicating with developers. By December 2010, Nakamoto 'essentially disappeared' and stopped posting publicly.
According to the lawsuit, the Kleimans have accused Wright of recruiting their now-deceased relative in 2008 to help write the explanatory letter and launch the company.
The family also notes that Kleiman incorporated a Florida company in 2011, two years before he died, called W&K Info Defense Research which was allegedly a partnership between the two men.
Wright has reportedly claimed outright ownership of W&K and the defense has denied a partnership.
The family of David Kleiman (left) claims that their now-deceased relative created Bitcoin in a partnership with Craig Wright (right). Wright has claimed to be the sole creator of the cryptocurrency
The Australian programmer also claimed to be Bitcoin's founder in May 2016, meeting with several cryptocurrency engineers, sitting for exclusive interviews and publishing papers about cryptography and bitcoin online.
Wright faced significant criticism and dropped the claim three days after his big announcement.
He removed all of his papers from his website and instead issued a four-paragraph apology reading in part: 'I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.'
Wright has since renewed his claim to be Nakamoto, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency experts remain skeptical
