Stolen Cryptocurrency Case Pitches Bitcoin ‘Inventor' Against Bitcoin

In a fascinating court case involving perhaps the best known players in the crytocurrency sector, old legal principles were used to try to solve a new problem.

The claim relates to very substantial digital currency assets that Tulip Trading Limited (TTL) claimed it owned but is currently unable to control or use. Following what it says was a hack of computers at the home office of Dr Craig Wright, its primary owner, the company allegedly lost access to more than 111,000 bitcoins. TTL is a company incorporated in the Seychelles and controlled by Dr Wright, an Australian computer scientist and businessman who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. The court was told that the result of the hack was to remove from those systems the "private keys" which would allow dealings in the assets, and information that would allow access to those keys.