The Australian who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin maintains a $71 billion cryptocurrency fortune

<p>Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, won a US civil trial verdict Monday against the family of a deceased business partner who claimed it was owed half of a tens of billions-dollar cryptocurrency fortune.</p> <p>A Florida jury determined that Dr Wright did not owe the family of David Kleiman half of 1.1 million Bitcoin. The jury did award US$100 million ($142 million) in intellectual property rights to a joint venture between the two men, a pittance of the amount sought by Mr Kleiman's lawyers during the trial.</p> <p>"This was a tremendous victory for our side," said Dr Wright's lead attorney, Andres Rivero of Rivero Mestre LLP.</p> <p>The trial revolved around 1.1 million Bitcoin, which are currently worth approximately US$50 billion at Monday's prices.</p> <p>These were some of the first Bitcoins created through mining and could only be owned by a person or entity that had been involved with the digital currency since its inception, such as Satoshi Nakamoto, its creator.</p> <p>The cryptocurrency community is now watching to see if Dr Wright keeps his promise to prove he owns the Bitcoin in question. This would lend credence to Dr Wright's 2016 claim that he is Nakamoto.</p> <p>The case was highly technical, with the jury hearing explanations of the intricate workings of cryptocurrencies as well as the murky origins of Bitcoin.</p> <p>Jurors deliberated for an entire week, repeatedly questioning lawyers on both sides as well as the judge about how cryptocurrencies work and the two men's business relationship. At one point, the jurors indicated to the judge that they had reached a stalemate.</p> <p>Bitcoin's origins have always been a bit mysterious, which is why this trial has garnered so much outside attention.  In October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, a person calling himself "Satoshi Nakamoto" published a paper outlining a framework for a decentralised digital currency unattached to any legal or sovereign authority.</p> <p>A few