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- In the case of the alleged Bitcoin creator Craig Wright against the heirs of David Kleiman, new testimonies were scheduled.
- Both testimonies of Andrew O’Hagan and Andreas Antonopoulos promise to be interesting.
For almost two years now, Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor, has been engaged in lawsuit against Ira Kleiman, the brother of the late David Kleiman and his heirs. Wright is accused by Kleiman’s heirs of embezzling David Kleiman’s rights to the 1.1 million Bitcoin (BTC) originally produced by Satoshi Nakamoto, as well as his intellectual property rights related to the Bitcoin technology.
On August 26, 2019, the Kleimans won the legal dispute for the time being. Wright was ordered to hand over half of his more than one million BTCs to the heirs of David Kleiman. However, Wright’s lawyers have appealed the decision.
Currently, the case around the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor is picking up speed again. Recently published court documents show which witnesses will be heard within the next three weeks. Most recently, the Kleiman heirs’ legal team had applied for a protective order to prevent Wright’s ex-wife from testifying on January 13, 2020.
New testimonies by O’Hagan and Andreas Antonopoulos
The recently published documents show a list of facts and expert witnesses who will be heard within the next few weeks. The list includes Ira Kleiman and Craig Wright as well as interesting names such as Andrew O’Hagan and Andreas Antonopoulos. In addition, various document examiners will be heard.
O’Hagan’s statement might be interesting because he spent several months with Wright for an editorial published in 2016, “The Satoshi Affair”. He could therefore be a key witness, as Wright allegedly showed the writer a signed message from one of the first blocks of Bitcoin.
However, it is questionable how valuable O’Hagan’s testimony really is. When “The Satoshi Affair” appeared, the article was sharply criticized because O’Hagan lacked a deep understanding of the blockchain technology. As a result, the article lacked credibility in the crypto-community. Nevertheless, O’Hagan’s statement may reveal something of the mystery associated with the writer’s relationship with Wright when he documented his life.
Antonopoulos’ relationship with Craig Wright
Among the expert witnesses, many crypto-enthusiasts will be particularly interested to hear Andreas Antonopoulos’ statement. It is well known that Wright and Antonopoulos are not the best of friends. In January 2019, on his now deleted Twitter account, Wright called Antonopoulos a “shitcoin expert”:
Word of warning. The renowned shitcoin expert Andreas Antonopoulos is as far as anyone can come to unterstanding Bitcoin.
The only thing correct … How to spell Bitcoin. If you want to learn Bitcoin, blockchain avoid the anarchist priests
Sorry. Nothing he tells you is right.
Curiously, three years ago a lawyer of Wright’s asked Antonopoulos if he could verify Wright’s identity as Satoshi Nakamoto (SN). Antonopoulos declined the request and wrote via Reddit at that time:
About two weeks ago I was contacted and asked to offer security advice for a project. I was asked to sign an NDA in order to discuss the project itself […]. Once I received the NDA however, it became obvious that the project was related to verifying the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. I immediately declined the offer.
From my perspective, the request for me to verify his/her/their identity is in itself an appeal to authority. It is replacing public cryptographic proof with endorsement by a third party. If SN wants to “prove” their identity, they don’t need an “authority” to do so. […]
I don’t know if Craig Wright is SN. I don’t care and I don’t want to know.
Both statements, from O’Hagan and Antonopoulos, could bring new truth to the case. Whether the witnesses will testify in the next three weeks remains to be seen.
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