Bitcoin Developers Reject Craig Wright's Lawsuit
Date: 2023-08-22 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BLOCKCHAIN, CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Bitcoin (BTC) developers, who were sued by the self-proclaimed inventor of the flagship digital asset, Craig Wright, have filed preliminary objections to claims that they failed in their fiduciary duty to help him recover more than 100,000 BTC worth roughly $2.5 billion. lost as a result of hacking.
According to a preliminary filing in the UK High Court, the BTC developers argued that there was no evidence that Wright or his company owned or controlled the stolen assets.
No evidence of ownership or control
On August 21, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Foundation stated that 111,000 BTC is currently held in two addresses: 12ib7 and 1FeeX. Notably, the 1FeeX address is linked to funds linked to the infamous Mt. Gox in 2014.
According to the developers, if Wright claims to be the owner of BTC in 1FeeX, then he tacitly admitted to committing a hack. In addition, the developers noted that his company was unable to show how Wright acquired bitcoin or any evidence of the loss of assets in the hack.
Thus, the provisional application aims to place the burden of proving previous ownership of 111,000 BTC on Wright. If approved, Wright would have to prove one-time ownership before the court could consider fiduciary duty.
Meanwhile, the statement highlighted Wright's history of forgery and dishonesty on several occasions, including court cases. They wrote:
“It has been proven that he was a completely dishonest person and it is [the defendants'] position that this proceeding is an attempt by Dr. Wright, through Tulip Trading Ltd, to use the English courts as a fraudulent tool. These are clearly serious allegations and are not being made lightly."
Craig Wright's relationship with the cryptocurrency community has been marked by suspicion, primarily due to his insistence that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.
Despite this controversy, Wright's deep involvement with Bitcoin since its inception has had a significant impact on him, which he has used strategically in various litigations.
