Australian computer scientist and self-professed Bitcoin inventor Craig Steven Wright is promising big things after mostly winning a court case that could have cost him billions.

A jury in Miami found that Wright didn’t owe half of 1.1 million Bitcoin to the family of his deceased friend Dave Kleiman, but did order Wright to pay $100 million to W&K Info Defense Research LLC, a joint venture between the two men.

Dave Kleiman’s brother Ira Kleiman had sued for about $200 billion in damages, claiming Wright and his brother Dave had invented Bitcoin together and Wright stole their invention after Dave Kleiman died in 2013.

“This has been a remarkably good outcome, and I feel completely vindicated,” Wright said in a video posted on Twitter.

“Next, there are still fights. We’re going to make everything change, from cryptocurrency to digital cash, the way it’s meant to be.

“My original invention is coming back … Each victory we get takes us closer, to a world where digital cash is used. Not a global casino, but real digital cash. Where people in third-world countries can make money, hold money, and trade.”

Both sides claim victory

A lawyer for Ira Kleiman also claimed victory, however.

 

Who is Satoshi?

The court wasn’t asked to settle Wright’s claim that he’s Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, which is accepted in the Bitcoin SV community but derided in the much larger crypto space.

In an interview after the verdict with Bloomberg News, Wright once again declined to move a few of the Satoshis (tiny fractions of a Bitcoin worth less than 1c) in Nakamoto’s huge wallet, which would put the matter to rest once and for all.