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$2.5 billion lawsuit against bitcoin network developers may go to trial

A lawsuit by Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed creator of bitcoin, against bitcoin network developers to try to recoup billions of dollars could go to trial, a London court said on Friday.

The ruling paves the way for judgment on potential developer obligations to digital asset owners.

A lawyer representing some developers said Wright’s victory could pose a fundamental challenge to decentralized finance.

Wright, an Australian computer scientist, is suing 15 developers to try to recover some 111,000 bitcoins – currently worth around $2.5 billion – after he lost the encrypted keys to access them when his computer network households was allegedly hacked.

Wright’s company Tulip Trading is taking legal action against the developers of three networks, claiming they are required to write software functions to help Tulip recover bitcoins.

Tulip’s case was dismissed last year, but the Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that developers undoubtedly have obligations to landlords, which must be determined in a full trial.

Judge Colin Birss said Tulip had a realistic argument that cryptocurrency is “entrusted” to network developers, who could therefore have a duty to “introduce code so that an owner’s bitcoin is transferred securely.”

Wright says that in 2008 he wrote the bitcoin ‘white paper’ that first outlined the technology behind digital assets under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, but the claim is heavily disputed.

He said in a statement that he was satisfied with the decision.

His lawyer, Felicity Potter, stated that the decision was ‘a step towards a properly regulated and well-governed digital asset ecosystem, which should be celebrated by potential and current coin holders”.

James Ramsden, a lawyer who represented 13 of the 14 developers involved in the appeal, told Reuters that the code writers are “incredibly nervous” about the case, which could leave them liable for large sums of money if Wright wins.

He added that the outcome of any judgment will affect “all aspects (of decentralized finance), whether it involves tokens or NFTs (non-fungible tokens) or the blockchain system more broadly.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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