Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright, credited with the invention of bitcoin, continues to harass cryptocurrency developers. Law Firm ONTIER LLP today announced the initiation of a process on behalf of Wright’s Tulip Trading Limited (TTL). The defendants are “developers of BTC, BCH, BCH ABC and BSV”. It is noteworthy that the main proponent of the latest cryptocurrency is Wright himself.
According to lawyers, Wright’s personal computer was hacked in February 2020; as a result, private keys were stolen from two TTL addresses with large amounts of bitcoins.
“These assets were and continue to be owned by TTL. The TTL requires developers to allow it to regain access and control over its bitcoins on the basis that they have fiduciary duties and interests to the owners of bitcoin under English law as a result of extensive authority and control over the respective blockchains, ”writes ONTIER.
According to lawyers, the amount of the claim at the current exchange rate exceeds £ 3.5 billion ($ 5 billion), of which most are in Bitcoin and smaller amounts in forks. “The fact that someone stole the digitally stored private keys from Tulip Trading does not stop the developers from running the code that will allow the rightful owner to regain control of bitcoins,” says ONTIER partner Paul Ferguson.
Pre-trial claim
The company also provides a version of the pre-trial claim, which it sends to the developers. It contains two addresses (1FeexV6bAHb8ybZjqQMjJrcCrHGW9sb6uF and 12ib7dApVFvg82TXKycWBNpN8kFyiAN1dr), which Wright previously attributed to himself, among other addresses allegedly belonging to him. In June 2020, ONTIER, together with Tulip Trading, already laid claim to them and warned bitcoin developers about responsibility if they try to move the assets located on them.
Now the company has gone further and demands to restore access to wallets, the private keys of which, according to its version, were stolen and deleted from Wright’s system. The alleged attackers never did anything to withdraw the cryptocurrency on them.
Moreover, it is known that 80,000 BTC stored on the 1Feex address ended up on it after they were stolen from the Mt. Gox in March 2011. Back in 2020, ex-CEO of Mt. Gox Mark Karpeles stated that by claiming this address, Wright is actually associating himself with the exchange hacking. This, however, does not stop its representatives from making further claims. Wright then denied any involvement in the Mt. Gox and claimed to have bought bitcoins in 2011.
“We have not received a reply to the letter dated June 12. Nevertheless, excerpts from this letter were published on the Internet in such a way as, most likely, to create a scandal around this situation, ”writes ONTIER in its latest statement. The firm promises to recover damages from the developers themselves if they cannot or refuse to help its client.
Reaction
how notes curated by Bitcoin.org Cobra, unlike in recent history where Wright demanded the removal of the Bitcoin white paper from public sources, the latest announcement appears to be “a well-planned and very serious legal attack.”
Reddit legal expert under the nickname primepatterns, who previously noted attention to the Wright cases, however, says that he sees no legal justification for prosecuting Bitcoin developers or even making any claims from the TTL until she proves that the specified addresses belong to her. … He calls the developer liability statements “a hypothetical essay question for a law student in a non-graduation course.”
“Let’s face it, the only significant“ defendants ”in this case are the BSV developers. I bet they can’t wait to capitulate to the demand and hard fork the corresponding coins on the BSV blockchain in favor of TTL. If this is not the final nail in the BSV coffin lid, then I don’t know what will become, ”adds primepatterns.
OKCoin recently announced BSV delisting and urged other trading platforms to follow suit, citing Wright’s actions as one of the main reasons.
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