A UK high court judge has ruled Australian businessman Craig Wright is not the inventor of Bitcoin, confirming what may be crypto’s biggest farce to date.
Over the last decade, Wright has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto – the pseudonymous creator of cryptocurrency Bitcoin – fuelling a tedious and years-long debate within the crypto community.
Wright has repeatedly failed to substantiate his claims, trickling out tenuous “evidence” such as foundational documents and offering flimsy excuses for why he hasn’t simply given cryptographic proof of being Satoshi.
Now, in a legal action brought by a collection of cryptocurrency companies under the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), London high court judge Justice Mellor ruled Wright is categorically not Satoshi, concluding the evidence against his claims is “overwhelming”.
“I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties,” reads an extract from a transcript of the Copa V Wright trial.
“First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.
“Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011.”
Mellor further stated Wright is “not the person who created the Bitcoin System”, and that he also did not author initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
As reported by The Guardian, the ruling was issued within moments of the case’s conclusion, with Mellor promising to prepare a “fairly lengthy written judgement” in due course.
COPA – whose members include crypto exchange Coinbase and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block – collectively sued Wright in search of a ruling to determine he was not Satoshi, and to prevent him from suing other members of the crypto community.
COPA’s legal team described Wright as having carried out a “massive campaign of dishonesty and forgery”, and further accused him of having fashioned new documents while the proceeds were underway.
The crypto-collective claimed one of these documents showed signs of ChatGPT being used in its creation, despite the document being made years before the chatbot even existed.
Notably, COPA also said experts representing both parties agreed a pivotal 2008 Bitcoin white paper had been written using discontinued office software OpenOffice, while a copy of the paper provided by Wright was allegedly written with a different tool called LaTeX.
A COPA spokesperson deemed the ruling 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,” they said.
“That ends today with the court’s ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
The outcome has also served as vindication for Twitter personality Hodlonaut, who is engaged in two ongoing legal cases after publicly tweeting Wright was a “scammer” and a “fraud” in 2019.
“My tweets have aged well,” said Hodlonaut.
“I stood by them in court, I stand by them now.
“This judgement doesn't automatically end the two ongoing cases they have against me, but it automatically ushers in the official reality of what Craig is and isn't.
“I think my long battle will soon be over.”
As the ruling effectively concludes Wright’s two-month trial, the outcomes of the case will be determined by Mellor at a later date.
“I'm afraid, for any further information, you'll [have] to wait for the written judgement,” said Mellor.
