It was an emotional day for Craig Wright as he continued his testimony in the second week of the Kleiman v Wright trial.
Ira Kleiman, who represents his brother Dave Kleiman’s estate and W&K Info Defense Research, LLC, is alleging that Dave Kleiman and Wright were co-creators of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and mined the 1.1 million coins together through W&K, which was purportedly a business partnership between the two.
It has to be pointed out that the fact that Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto is not in question here. In fact, the trial is based on this—that Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto who is in possession of the 1.1 million Bitcoin valued currently at over $70 billion.
The point of contention in this trial is whether or not Wright had a partnership with Dave Kleiman in being Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and a business partnership later on to mine said coins.
Day 7 of the Kleiman v Wright trial has proven to be full of clarifications as Wright continues his testimony. One of the more significant details from Wright is that the plaintiff claiming that Wright transferred Dave Kleiman’s assets to himself appears to be true, as backed by evidence.
The Transfer of Assets from Dave Kleiman to Wright
Being Wright’s best friend who has worked closely with him on many things, Wright asked Dave Kleiman to transfer 573,500 Bitcoin under the latter’s name to avoid it being touched by the Australian Tax Office, which seemed to have a vendetta against Wright due to a previous legal dispute that Wright won.
After the transfer of assets from Wright to Dave Kleiman, the latter then needed to return them; hence, the plaintiff claiming that Wright stole Dave Kleiman’s Bitcoin was not true. Wright further clarified that having control of an asset is not equal to owning them.
And this kind of agreement is corroborated by the fact that Dave Kleiman, who was in a ton of debt and had a serious illness, never tried to lay claim to the 573,500 coins in question while he was alive. It was an agreement between friends who trusted each other.
And there have been many pieces of evidence presented, as well as witness testimonies, wherein Dave Kleiman spoke very highly of Wright. If he was being cheated of Bitcoin that he knew was rightfully his, then Dave Kleiman would not have just quietly faded into obscurity until his death.
Wright’s Email Correspondence with Ira Kleiman
Some of the more damning pieces of evidence presented by the plaintiff are of Wright himself telling Ira Kleiman that Dave Kleiman had helped him with Bitcoin and that Dave Kleiman might have been in possession of some Bitcoin.
In fact, Wright even cautioned Ira Kleiman not to delete Dave Kleiman’s hard drives because they might contain keys to Bitcoin. It must be noted, however, that it was Ira Kleiman who contacted Wright first. According to Wright, he did not know that Dave Kleiman had another living brother.
Wright was actually in communication first with Dave Kleiman’s fiancé, who was also informed by Dave Kleiman himself that his brother was already dead. Dave had a brother who actually died before him. It seems that Ira Kleiman’s relationship with his brother was estranged at best, given that Dave did not mention Ira to his fiancé.
Wright explained that after Ira Kleiman contacted him that he exaggerated Dave Kleiman’s involvement in Bitcoin because he did not want his best friend to be forgotten. Wright said that Dave Kleiman did a lot of amazing things, but they were not as noteworthy or historic as Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Wright personally believed at that time that Dave Kleiman might have mined Bitcoin because the latter was told to mine Bitcoin and was capable of mining it. It was logical of Wright to assume at that time that David Kleiman might have mined and consequently owned Bitcoin, and letting his best friend’s brother know this was an honest act of goodwill.
Dave Kleiman’s Involvement in Bitcoin
Wright became very emotional to the point of tears when talking about his relationship with Dave Kleiman and detailing the latter’s involvement in Bitcoin. According to Wright, the decision to go through with creating Bitcoin was a very difficult one that cost him his marriage, among other things.
It was Dave Kleiman, Wright’s “only ally” during this very challenging period of his life, who supported him and pushed him to create Bitcoin amidst his divorce with his then-wife Lynn Wright. And this is the very crucial role that Dave Kleiman had in the creation of Bitcoin. Essentially, Dave Kleiman was the best friend of Satoshi Nakamoto who, without him, Bitcoin may have remained just a white paper.
For Wright, Dave Kleiman’s help in the realization of Wright’s vision for Bitcoin was monumental and extremely personal. Wright was even very forthcoming in stating all the work that Dave Kleiman had provided related to Bitcoin. The two did mine Bitcoin together on testnet to see if the unbounded protocol worked.
And it did. They were able to mine 300GB blocks at a throughput of a few million transactions per second. Dave Kleiman worked with the supercomputers used to mine Bitcoin on testnet. But he was not a coder and did not create the code for Bitcoin. Dave Kleiman also helped Wright edit the Bitcoin white paper, but editing did not make Dave Kleiman a co-author.
Ultimately, Wright’s testimony stated that Dave Kleiman was not a part of the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym who wrote and published the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and they did not also mine actual Bitcoin together that made Dave Kleiman entitled to up to half of the “Satoshi coins.” Dave Kleiman, however, provided valuable moral support that motivated Wright to create Bitcoin.
Wright will continue his testimony for the plaintiff on Day 8 of the Kleiman v Wright trial. He will not be cross-examined by his legal counsel as Wright is expected to testify again for the defense.
