American couple sued Ethereum makers for 3,000 ethers

A new: We have used commission links in this article and have marked them with “*”. If an order is placed through these links, t3n.de receives a commission.

They bought 3,000 ethers seven years ago and haven’t had access to their wallet since; Now an American couple wants to sue the Ethereum Foundation. But the story is not entirely coherent.

In 2014, the Ethereum Foundation, the organization behind the corresponding blockchain and what is currently the second largest cryptocurrency, started a pre-sale. On this occasion, the Yuki and Art Williams couple from the US capital, Washington, bought 3,000 ethers for 1.5 Bitcoin. At the time, the coins were worth just under $ 1,000; they are currently worth around $ 7.8 million. The problem: The Williamses can’t get their money, and they blame Ethereum developers for it.

Now, the couple want to raise $ 250,000 through crowdfunding so they can sue the Ethereum Foundation in a Swiss court. Specifically, Yuki and Art Williams are concerned about a Json file. Those who participated in the Ether presale in 2014 had to download them. This would then have contained the private keys of the wallet. The couple said they never received this file.

A detail of the narrative leaves the observers: inside but questioning. Because Art Williams told the news channel ABC-7-News, at that time there was a suggestion not to turn off the computer for an hour and a half while it was charging. However, this notice cannot be found on the 2014 campaign website saved via Waybackmachine. Also, even with the worst internet connection, a Json file should download in just a few seconds, like Golem writes.

Which also speaks against the success of a Williams lawsuit against Ethereum: in one Youtube video It can be seen that as part of the sales campaign, buyers were clearly advised not to transfer the Bitcoin until the Json file with the wallet password had been downloaded. Also, it is highly unlikely that the Ethereum Foundation will keep the Json file. Otherwise, you would theoretically have the keys to all the buyers’ wallets at the time – inside.

After all: the wallet with the 3,000 ethers is noisy Mashable Research. And it hasn’t really been touched since 2014. The wallet and the 7.8 million euros should finally be lost. It is also interesting that a liquidation offer from a Swiss arbitration authority failed. In response to the Williams’ earlier complaints, 2,750 ethers were offered. Now the lawsuit should bring a clarification.

You may also be interested in that