Funny Money Update

The Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who claims he is the one and only “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the pseudonym of the anonymous person who launched Bitcoin, has been cleared of IP theft charges by a Miami jury. The plaintiff was the brother of Wright’s deceased friend, Dave Kleiman. Wright is on the record as saying Kleiman did key work on the team that invented Bitcoin, but has since retracted that assessment, and explained that he was merely honoring his dead friend’s memory by exaggerating his role. Wright still has to pay up $100 million in compensatory damages, big money for most, but chump change if Wright’s claim to be a multi-billionaire are true. The crypto currency world largely dismisses Wright’s assertions that he is Bitcoin’s inventor, and as such holds the 1.1 million Bitcoins worth around $56 billion that the true Nakamoto is said to possess. Those Bitcoins were some of the earliest ever mined, and have not been touched since they were created. Wright promised to prove he is Nakamoto if he won the suit by transferring some of the early Bitcoins and making a donation to charity. His attorney says that is still his intent. The question is, when will he pony up?