Craig Wright, claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, has lost his case

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25 Mar 2024

Craig Wright arrives for a hearing over the identity of the creator of bitcoin, earlier this year.

The Australian-born computer specialist Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the alias of the brilliant man behind Bitcoin, according to a ruling by the High Court of London.
A paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," written by a person going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto and published in October 2008, detailed the inner workings of what would eventually become the most significant cryptocurrency in the world.
Mr. Nakamoto released the source code for the initial iteration of the program that would enable users to create and trade bitcoin two months later.
Although its value has varied since its introduction, Bitcoin—also known as "digital gold"—has been the most successful cryptocurrency. This week, it reached an all-time high of about $74,000.
Thursday's civil trial in London concluded with a verdict against Mr. Wright, who was the target of a lawsuit by the non-profit Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which is made up of major cryptocurrency companies.
Mr. Justice Mellor promised to provide the rationale for his decision at a later time.
Jonathan Hough, KC, the COPA's attorney, stated during his closing argument earlier this week that Dr. Wright had been proven to have lied on a very large scale and that it was hard to think of a precedence for what he had done. He has created a series of falsified documents to back up the complete biographical narrative he has concocted.
“Even when the extent of his dishonesty and forgery was exposed to him in cross-examination, he doubled down, forging further documents during the trial, blaming a litany of characters, asserting implausible technical excuses and suggesting a vast and ever-growing conspiracy to frame him, all to evade his responsibility.”
Mr. Hough stated that although Mr Wright's defence had been "comical" at times, his actions were "no laughing matter."

COPA Want Wright to Be Charged With Perjury
The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, will get a transcript of the trial, he said, "for consideration of prosecution for the offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice."
Mr Wright, a British resident, disputes any misconduct.
"This decision is a win for developers, for the entire open source community, and for the truth," a COPA representative declared following the decision.
Supporters of cryptocurrencies all around the world have been closely following this trial, as Mr. Hough stated that Mr. Wright had developed a "elaborate false narrative" and had "terrorized" anyone who ventured to question him.
However, Mr. Nakamoto's exact identity has remained a mystery for the past 16 years since he stopped communicating in April 2011.
David Kleiman, Mr. Wright's business partner, passed away in 2013, but his family filed a lawsuit against Mr. Wright in Miami, Florida in 2021, arguing they should have received half of his 1.1 million bitcoin holdings, which were valued at $54 billion at the time.
The Kleiman family's allegations were dismissed by the jury, but Mr. Wright was nonetheless mandated to reimburse his late partner's business $100 million for violation of intellectual property.
According to Mr. Kleiman's family, the two collaborated to design and mine the first bitcoin.
Mr. Hough called Mr. Wright's assertion that he was Satoshi Nakamoto "a brazen lie" and claimed that it was a part of a "complex false narrative supported by forgery on an industrial scale" during the High Court trial in London.
According to Mr. Hough, "Dr. Wright has repeatedly offered documents that clearly show signs of having been doctored, but he has failed to provide genuine proof of his claim to be Satoshi."
Additionally, he charged that Mr. Wright had forged documents "due to the pressure of time" by employing the AI program ChatGPT.
Lord Grabiner, KC, the attorney for Mr Wright, stated that his client had published the white paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto after "many years devoted to studying and working on concepts underpinning Bitcoin" and that there was "clear evidence" that he was the one who founded the cryptocurrency.
Lord Grabiner questioned why no one else had ever been able to establish they were Satoshi Nakamoto and claimed that COPA was "exclusively concerned" with discrediting Mr Wright's claim.
"This issue has been the subject of numerous legal proceedings in this jurisdiction and elsewhere, as well as extensive media commentary since early 2016," he stated. The actual Satoshi would have been expected to step out to refute the claim if Dr. Wright wasn't Satoshi.

So Who Is the Real Satoshi Nakamoto?
There have been several claims about who is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Dorian S. Nakamoto smiles during an interview in Los Angeles on March 6, 2014.

A report in Newsweek from March 2014 claimed that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto was the person who invented Bitcoin.
In a statement, Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto declared, "I did not conceive, invent, or work on Bitcoin in any other way. I vehemently refute the Newsweek article.
He went so far as to say that in 2013, he had cancelled his internet service due to financial concerns.
A third individual who has been suggested as the potential Satoshi Nakamoto is Nick Szabo, the creator of Bit Gold, the original cryptocurrency.
"A protocol whereby unforgeable costly bits could be created online with minimal dependence on trusted third parties," was how Mr. Szabo put Bit Gold.
In July 2014 Mr. Szabo reportedly emailed financial author Dominic Frisby, who had claimed he was Mr. Nakamoto, and told him, “I’m afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I’m used to it.”