Craig Wright now claims to have destroyed the hard drive with Satoshi Wallet’s ‘key slices’

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright has been claiming for years that he is the mythical person who invented Bitcoin. The crypto community, however, asserts that nothing could be further from the truth. Due to his role in the most recent lawsuit, the man’s credibility has suffered yet another blow.

Craig Wright initially gained attention in 2015 when a tip from an anonymous source sparked a series of parallel investigations by media outlets that concluded he was Satoshi. However, many more studies concluded that the “flimsy evidence” offered as support was grossly insufficient. The following year, Wright embarked on a press tour and identified himself as the founder of Bitcoin.

Craig Wright claims to have destroyed the hard disk

Interestingly, he is no longer attempting to use cryptography to establish his Satoshi identity after numerous failed efforts. Instead, according to his testimony before a Norwegian court, Craig Wright claims to have destroyed his only proof when he “stomped on the hard drive” carrying “key slices” necessary to access Satoshi Nakamoto’s private keys, making it extremely challenging to prove his claim “cryptographically.”

The statement at the center of the Australian computer scientist’s trial in Norway is one that he has so far been unable to refute. Craig Wright is also involved in a legal battle with crypto Twitter personality Hodlonaut for a string of tweets the latter posted labeling Wright a “fraud” and “scammer.”

Craig Wright reacted when Hodlonaut’s attorney, Ørjan Haukaas, asked if he had purposefully destroyed the hard drive:

“I didn’t want to encourage the arguments that you need keys. Yes, you could say this is a risk, but I think it’s the most important thing I’ve done in my life.”

As TheCoinRise reported in December last year, the 2018-started dispute between Craig Wright and the heirs of his now-deceased partner David Kleiman over the ownership of tens of billions of dollars in Bitcoin mined by Nakamoto was stuck in a deadlock and many believe that it might end in a mistrial.