Actually these are mysteries, more than one, and definitely more than anyone right in their mind could count. To name only two: Rumours surrounding the identity of the creator (or creators) of Bitcoin, who hide(s) behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, tales of fraud and collapsed cryptocurrency exchanges such as Quadriga, once Canada’s largest following the unexpected death of its CEO in India in early December 2018 or the spectacular bankruptcy of Mt. Gox in February 2014, which handled at that time some 70% of the world’s Bitcoin transactions.
Not entirely unsurprisingly, a Russian lawyer a few months ago stated that some of his compatriots had made off with some of the Mt Gox loot – and that he would be able to recover at least part of it – in exchange for 50 to 75% the recovered coins plus an hourly charge… sorry if I am sceptical….
Alexander Zheleznikov, the managing partner of the Russian law firm might in this case also assist Craig Steven Wright, an Australian computer scientist and businessman who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto – and who finds himself in a legal spat in the Florida courts with the brother of the late Dave Kleiman, a former business associate of Mr Wright who is (or was) equally a contender to Nakamoto’s fame, as to over who owns then the rights to a stash of Bitcoins worth several billion Dollars.
Whichever way this saga turns out – and it might still rumble on for a while and earn some US lawyers a fair amount of money (hopefully they won’t be paid in Bitcoins) – in the meantime this makes some fascinating reading and, who knows, maybe even a blockbuster movie we get to watch a few years from now.
And the lawyers may actually want to be paid in Bitcoins, particularly if they believe John McAfee’s prediction of November 2017, that one Bitcoin would be worth $1 million by the end of 2020. McAfee is standing by his prediction. If he’s wrong he says he’ll eat an intimate body part…
The grumpy older man 