High Court rules that self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator is not ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’
The London High Court has decided that Craig Wright is not the founder of the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, following a unique trial.
Australian computer scientist Dr Craig Wright has long claimed to be behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the name used by the person who authored the Bitcoin White Paper.
Over the last five weeks, the High Court has heard two cases involving the identity issue. The first was Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit set up to keep cryptocurrency technology free from patents, which sued Wright over his claim that he is the creator.
While the second case was Wright suing 26 blockchain developers as he sought recognition of alleged copyrights over the Bitcoin white paper and database rights over the entire Bitcoin blockchain.
Today, Mr Justice Mellor ruled that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper, he is not Satoshi Nakamoto and he is not the person who created the Bitcoin system.
Justice Mellor commented: “Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgement. I will extend time for filing any appellant’s notice until 21 days after the form of order hearing, which will be appointed following the hand down of my written judgement.”
Throughout the unique case, Wright was blamed for forging further documents during the trial and to have “have lied on an extraordinary scale”.
In his closing arguments on Wednesday, COPA barrister stated that Wright used “used his time in the witness box to defame, blame and attack anyone he could identify to defend his position, including even his own expert witnesses and a series of law firms previously engaged by him”.
The barrister did tell the court that COPA will ask after judgment referred the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration of prosecution for the offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Speaking on today’s result, COPA spokesperson said, “This decision is a win for developers, for the entire open source community, and for the truth. For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers have lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate developers in the bitcoin community. That ends today with the court’s ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Commenting on the result, Keith Oliver, head of international at Peters and Peters explained: “Mr Justice James Mellor’s declaration that Mr Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto is a watershed moment for the crypto-sphere. A formal decision will be hotly anticipated, but in the meantime, we can settle in to watch the inevitable shockwaves ripple through the crypto- market. With the Bitcoin Halving set for next month, and now this, it will be very interesting to watch events unfold.”