Where do you start with a story like Craig Wright’s? The Australian entrepreneur has had a great deal of time in the limelight, and that’s both a good and a bad thing. He came out as Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, back in 2016, and is currently facing the barrel end of a lawsuit from his former business partner.

Craig Wright’s carreer is a distinct one, even more so with a possible crash down to earth depending on a verdict.

Is Wright Satoshi Nakamoto?

The famed writer of bitcoin’s whitepaper in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, has been veiled in mystery since his or her name was typed onto the plans that became the juggernaut we know and use. Since then, plenty of people have tried to claim it as their identity, but none has managed to prove it.

With bitcoin’s growing value, Nakamoto is believed to now be one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth, In October 2017, he or she was estimated to have a wealth of 5.9 billion behind him. A year before, in 2016, a man named Craig Wright would enter the public eye as one of the people ‘outing’ themselves as the illustrious Satoshi Nakamoto. In an interview with the BBC in May 2016, Wright stated that he was, in fact, bitcoin’s creator.

The challenge is whether or not the evidence he provided demonstrably proves that he is Nakamoto. Problem is that there was only ever credible ‘private’ evidence given, with little more than an insipid – now deleted – blog post. Recently, Wright was called a “fraud” by Ethereum founder VVitalik Buterin, as Buterin believes he could’ve just proved he is Satoshi Nakamoto buy making a signature associated with the first bitcoin transaction.

The Billion-Dollar Lawsuit

While not the best way to find out someone’s true identity, allegations levied against Wright would see this private evidence spill into the public domain in a messy, highly expensive trial between the two parties.

What started off as a lawsuit has now escalated to serious allegations of multiple levels of fraud that Craig Wright allegedly attempted against his former business partner: Dave Kleiman. Kleiman, who passed away in 2013, is being represented by his brother Ira, and had originally filed the suit over who retains the rights to cryptocurrencies valued at a staggering total of $5.1 billion.

Evidence suggest Wright forged Kleinman’s signature using a computer-generated font called Otto.

Allegations against Wright get increasingly interesting when the logic behind Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto is lined up with evidence against his court claim. According to CNBC, Wright had fraudulently put Kleiman’s name to contracts he created to retroactively lay claim to the money.

These claims have genuinely heated up the stakes between the two parties. With the suit being filed only last month, only time will tell whether the self-proclaimed Satoshi will be proven innocent or guilty.