Craig Wright ordered to show Tulip Trust Bitcoin holdings by 15 May

There are an uncomfortable number of signs pointing to some kind of Satoshi Nakamoto reveal on 15 May.

The Tulip Trust is the name given to a fund that holds some 1.1 million Bitcoin. It's currently valued at some US$5-6 billion, which is perhaps one of the least interesting things about it.

Somewhat more interestingly, the funds held in that trust are currently the centrepiece of a legal scuffle between the estate of one David Kleiman and Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.

According to the details of the case, Kleiman and Wright were both involved in the Bitcoin mining business from early days, and their company managed to accrue a lot of Bitcoin back in the day.

However, Kleiman passed away in 2013. Under conventional corporate law, those Bitcoin were assets of their mining company and about half of it should have belonged to Kleiman's estate. But as far as anyone knows, none of Kleiman's friends or relatives even knew he was so deeply involved in Bitcoin, let alone that he might have a soon-to-be vast fortune of cryptocurrency.

But things changed in 2015, when an investigation first pointed at Kleiman and Wright as the possible inventors of Bitcoin. An unfinished draft of a contract was among the documents made public during the investigation. It essentially detailed the existence of 1.1 million Bitcoin in a trust, designated the Tulip Trust in an apparent reference to the Tulip bubble to which Bitcoin is often compared. The draft appears to essentially grant the entire fortune to Wright.

Alongside other evidence, this was enough to spur Kleiman's inheritors onto a lawsuit in pursuit of Kleiman's share of those 1.1 million Bitcoin supposedly held by Wright in the Tulip Trust.

The most interesting part is that Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, is still unknown. And Satoshi's fortune is estimated to be at around 1 million Bitcoin, give or take. Put two and two together, and there's a solid layer of evidence to suggest that Satoshi Nakamoto's original Bitcoin are in the Tulip Trust.

What must be done

Ownership of those original Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin is important because it's thought to be the key piece of evidence someone will have to provide in order to prove that they are Satoshi Nakamoto. A few people have claimed to have invented Bitcoin, Wright included, but none of them have ever been able to prove that they own those original Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin.

Which brings us here.

There's evidence to suggest that those original Bitcoin are in the Tulip Trust, and now as part of the ongoing case between Kleiman's estate and Wright, the courts have ordered Wright to lay bare all the details of the Tulip Trust, including the trustee and the location (on the blockchain) of the coins in the trust.

Specifically, the court has ordered Wright to identify all Bitcoin he transferred into the Tulip Trust in 2011, produce documents related to the trust, make Wright identify under oath the identity of the current and past trustees of the trust, reveal the manner in which the Bitcoin were transferred to the trust and generally let the court poke around all other details of the trust as required.

"On or before May 8, 2019, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Dr. Wright shall provide to Plaintiffs a sworn declaration identifying the name and location of the blind trust, the name and contact information for the current trustee and any past trustees, and the names and contact information of any current or past beneficiaries," the court order says.

Plus:

"On or before May 15, 2019, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Dr. Wright shall produce all transactional records of the blind trust, including but not limited to any records reflecting the transfer of bitcoin into the blind trust in or about 2011. The production shall be accompanied by a sworn declaration of authenticity."

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The omens are speaking

If Kleiman and/or Wright are Satoshi Nakamoto, there's good reason to believe Satoshi's Bitcoin are in the Tulip Trust. And if that's the case, there's good reason to believe that 15 May will be zero hour for the reveal. And just a couple of weeks ago, Wright affirmed that Kleiman helped him create Bitcoin.

At the same time, the website gotsatoshi.com recently started counting down to the supposed unveiling of Satoshi Nakamoto, with the counter set to run out on 14-15 May, depending on your time zone. That also happens to be the start date for Consensus, the biggest event in cryptocurrency world.

Plus John McAfee recently announced that he was about to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, before walking back his claim. And in the meantime, a new miner going by Satoshi Nakamoto recently cropped up on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, coming out of nowhere to control an impressive 40% of the network hashrate.

To complicate matters further, Phil "Scronty" Wilson recently reiterated his claim of being the third member of Satoshi Nakamoto – saying Kleiman and Wright were the other two – and providing extra details which further help fill in the time line of Bitcoin's early history.

In other disturbing news, there have also been rumours of birds flying backwards, cats and dogs living together, Tether not being fully backed and locust plagues.

The stars are aligning and the omens are speaking. Everything is happening all at once, and ticking down towards 15 May. Is there any connection between the countdown, the Satoshi Nakamoto miner, Consensus and the timing of Wright's court order? Is Satoshi Nakamoto about to return to Earth, to shake the continents themselves with his footsteps and mercilessly revel in the lamentations of the Bitcoin Cash heretics?

Let us consult the augurs...

...or maybe let's not.

Disclosure: The author holds BTC, BNB and ATOM at the time of writing.