A court allows lawsuit by Bitcoin inventor for $2.5 billion to ‎continue

A London court said that a lawsuit brought by Craig Wright, who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, against the developers of the cryptocurrency network to try to recover billions of dollars can go to trial.

Australian computer scientist Wright is suing 15 developers in an attempt to recover about 111,000 bitcoins, currently worth about $2.5 billion, after he lost the encrypted keys to access them when the home computer network was hacked.

Wright claims to have written the Bitcoin codes that first identified the technology behind the digital asset under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2008, but this claim is highly disputed.

The recent decision of the London court paves the way for a trial over whether developers owe duties to digital asset owners, which could pose a major challenge to decentralized finance if Wright wins, according to a lawyer representing some of the developers.

“Craig Wright” stated after announcing the court’s decision that he was pleased with this ruling, and his lawyer, “Felicity Potter,” considered that the decision “is a step towards a well-regulated and controlled digital asset ecosystem that should be welcomed by potential and existing currency owners alike.”