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Executive Summary Background Information What Is Bitcoin? What Is Executive Summary Details surrounding the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and the origins of Bitcoin have emerged from a Florida court case, Kleiman v Wright. The plaintiff, Ira Kleiman, is suing the defendant, Craig Steven Wright (CSW) for the rights to Bitcoin tokens and Bitcoin related intellectual property. Ira alleges that his deceased brother Dave Kleiman was CSW’s partner in the development of Bitcoin and Bitcoin related IP. Implicit in this allegation is that CSW created Bitcoin and has access to Satoshi’s Bitcoins currently valued ~$10B. CSW has made it clear that his intention is to sell his BTC in favor of his preferred version of Bitcoin, BSV, which is more aligned with the original design. If this occurs it will have massive market ramifications on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars. Court case details support CSW’s claim to be Satoshi. This contrasts the opinion of many industry leaders who don’t believe that CSW is Satoshi or that he can follow through on his threat to sell BTC for BSV. The conflict around the Satoshi identity ties into a larger conflict about the purpose of Bitcoin and the role of law in Bitcoin. Background Information What is Bitcoin? What is BTC? Bitcoin is a revolutionary peer-to-peer network and electronic cash system. Over its 10 year ​ history, Bitcoin tokens have appreciated from being effectively worthless to having a market cap of over $315 billion. BTC is the predominant ticker symbol of the Bitcoin token. Others, like BSV and BCH exist through a process called forking. These forks have a shared common history with each other until they split into distinct coins. Because of this, at times use of “Bitcoin” can refer to all three ticker symbols. Some believe (us included) that the Bitcoin network will fundamentally reshape how the internet works and help solve some of the most fundamental problems of its current design. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous identity of the creator of Bitcoin. The identity of Satoshi ​ ​ is hotly debated since he invented a revolutionary technology, helped steward its early years, and then disappeared. It is likely that in 2017, at the peak value of the Bitcoin token, that Satoshi was one of the richest people on Earth. However, he never made any Bitcoin transactions with any of his approximately one million Bitcoin tokens despite them being valued at over $20 billion, further adding mystery to his identity. No identity for Satoshi has been formally confirmed and widely accepted as valid to date. Who is Craig Wright? Craig Steven Wright (CSW) is an Australian computer security expert with decades of ​ experience in information technology, critical infrastructure and cyber security, and digital 1 forensics. He also has an accomplished academic background with degrees in statistics, ​ ​ information technology, commercial law, networking and systems administration, and even theology. His credentials also include dozens of professional certifications in IT and computer ​ ​ security from organizations like GIAC (Global Information Assurance Certification). Most Google searches on CSW will yield information about his association with Bitcoin and his claim to be Bitcoin’s inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto. What is Kleiman v Wright? ​ ​ Kleiman v Wright is an ongoing court case in Florida which involves the identity of Satoshi ​ ​ Nakamoto. The plaintiff, Ira Kleiman, is suing the defendant, Craig Steven Wright (CSW) for the rights to Bitcoin tokens and Bitcoin related intellectual property. Ira alleges that his deceased brother Dave Kleiman was CSW’s partner in the development of Bitcoin and Bitcoin related IP. The Bitcoin and IP in question are the famed “Satoshi Million” bitcoin. CSW claims that he invented Bitcoin alone without any formal help from Dave Kleiman who he insists was a friend and not a partner in Bitcoin’s development. In short, this case is over the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto: CSW and Dave Kleiman, or just CSW? Likely Outcomes of the Trial It is uncertain who will win the court case. That said, we believe that either outcome will show that CSW played a role in the creation of Bitcoin as Satoshi Nakamoto and that CSW will be able to use his substantial Bitcoin related assets to promote BSV at the expense of BTC and BCH. We think it is likely that CSW will win the court case based on the difficulty to achieve the burden of proof required for Ira Kleiman and the lack of clarity from existing exhibit documents and testimony we have reviewed. However, we think that the resolution of this court case, regardless of which party wins, will be more significant for the broader market than the exact details of the legal outcome. ------------------ What is the significance of Kleiman v Wright? ​ ​ The conflicting stories and unanswered questions of a legal battle have the ability to make almost any case compelling. Typically the satisfaction of getting a concrete answer to relevant questions is reserved for after the decision and dependent on the determination of the judge and jury. In the ongoing Kleiman v Wright court case in Florida, we have all this usual excitement but also the satisfaction of resolving a major mystery prior to the end of the case: unmasking the identity of (at least part of) Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor. 2 By examining the initial legal complaint, submitted documentary exhibits, and witness deposition testimony made public as part of discovery in the Kleiman v Wright court case in Florida, it has ​ ​ ​ ​ become clear that the infamous Australian computer scientist and IT security expert CSW will likely be vindicated in his claim to being Satoshi Nakamoto. The pending ruling expected this October will determine whether CSW’s associate and friend Dave Kleiman was a partner in Bitcoin’s invention and development and is thus due assets and IP. However, given all the available information, CSW’s role in Bitcoin’s invention is now much harder to dispute as it is corroborated by virtually all evidence in the case, including evidence that benefits the plaintiffs. If CSW is likely at least a part of Satoshi Nakamoto, why does the consensus sentiment and the prices of relevant publicly traded assets reflect the opposite: the popular claims that CSW is a fraud and that his vision of Bitcoin is absurd and worthless? To understand this confusion the information released in this court case needs to be contextualized within a higher level picture of the invention and development of Bitcoin. It is our contention that for years CSW has had the ability to provide ample public evidence of his role in Bitcoin’s invention but has opted not to for strategic reasons, namely in order to maximize the value of his assets and further his ability to realize the vision of Bitcoin he has had since its inception. It is also possible that being widely recognized as Satoshi could bring CSW legal trouble because of Bitcoin’s early association with criminal activity and the tax implications of mining billions of dollars of early Bitcoin. Synopsis of Kleiman v Wright The multi-year Florida legal battle between Ira Kleiman and Craig Steven Wright (CSW) will soon be coming to an end. Although most people don’t currently know these names, it is probable that the outcome of this trial will have a significant impact on the long term value of hundreds of billions of dollars of capital and could potentially lead to the addition of a new name in our history books alongside the likes of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. In this court case, Ira Kleiman is suing CSW for the rights to half of the intellectual property and the “Satoshi Million” Bitcoin owned by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s famously mysterious inventor. The reason for Ira’s lawsuit is that he alleges that his deceased brother Dave Kleiman was a partner with CSW in the creation of Bitcoin. CSW claims there was no such partnership and he invented it alone (refer to the recently submitted “Joint Neutral Statement of Case” for this synopsis.) The ​ ​ uncertain outcome in this case is not whether CSW invented Bitcoin, on this both parties agree, but instead whether Ira Kleiman has the rights to Bitcoin and IP through his deceased brothers estate. Although this legal outcome remains to be determined, the information already presented during the years-long discovery process can give us a look inside one of the most significant inventions of the past decade and something that has the potential to change the future as much or more than the invention of the internet. What have we learned from Trial Discovery? The existence of disputed documents and contradictory witness testimony is not unusual for a contentious legal dispute. However, for those more interested in the identity of the inventor of Bitcoin than details over who owns what rights to assets, its noteworthy that a plethora of 3 exhibits submitted by both the plaintiff (Ira Kleiman) and defendant (CSW), regardless of which side they support in this litigation, place CSW at the founding of Bitcoin. Again, according to ​ both parties, the dispute in this case is over whether CSW did so alone or in a partnership with ​ Ira’s deceased brother, Dave Kleiman. Some of these exhibits include: ● Joint neutral statement of case between the plaintiff and defendant both agreeing that ​ CSW developed and released the original Bitcoin protocol ● ATO (Australian Tax Office) documents and testimony about CSW’s 2009 Bitcoin R&D ​ spend ● Deposition and documentary evidence which paint a picture of a complex structure of ​ legal entities
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