Australian computer scientist and debunked Bitcoin 'inventor' Craig Wright has been accused of contempt of court after filing a $1.79 billion lawsuit against payments firm Block.
Despite a storied early career in Australia’s IT industry, Wright is most known for his unwavering and controversial claim of having invented leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
The true identity of Nakamoto has been up for debate since their last online appearance on a public forum in 2010 – leading Wright to adopt the name and spruik apparent penmanship of the original Bitcoin whitepaper.
In 2021, Wright’s claims were met with a UK civil lawsuit by a collection of cryptocurrency companies under the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).
The case famously saw London high court judge James Mellor effectively debunk the notion that Wright invented Bitcoin, all-the-while labelling him an “accomplished liar” who engaged in forgery on a “grand scale”.
Further to ending Wright’s years-long crypto farce and landing him a referral to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service to weigh up potential prosecution for perjury, COPA’s lawsuit aimed to protect the crypto community from a relentless series of lawsuits Wright had launched under the pretence of having invented Bitcoin.
And despite receiving an injunction to prevent him from conducting such lawsuits, last month, Wright launched a new lawsuit against Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Block in the UK.
Wright in contempt?
According to cryptocurrency reporter BitMex Research, Craig Wright attended a court hearing on 1 November regarding a COPA contempt application for his latest lawsuit against Block.
The lawsuit – which has now been placed on hold – targets payments company Square Up Europe Limited, which is ultimately owned by Block, as well as the developers of open-source Bitcoin software Bitcoin Core.
As reported by Forbes, the lawsuit centres around the original version of Bitcoin, and whether the defendants have misrepresented the widely known and well-accepted “BTC” currency as the original Bitcoin protocol.
Wright argued the “true version” of Bitcoin is in fact Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) – a cryptocurrency he founded with the aim of restoring Satoshi’s supposed original vision for Bitcoin – before claiming for some $1.79 billion (£911 million) based on the difference in market valuation between BSV and BTC.
The contempt-of-court application from COPA effectively argued Wright’s latest lawsuit was in breach of the injunctions established by the UK high court earlier this year.
On 1 November, Wright affirmed his lawsuit to the court by arguing the defendant’s activities were “abusive”, and that their changes to Bitcoin would “enable more money laundering”.
“I do not believe I am in contempt,” said Wright, who was not legally represented and attended via a video call out of Singapore.
According to Reuters, Wright said if he was found to be in contempt of court, he was willing to amend his lawsuit to make it clear the case had “nothing to do with the ownership of the creation of the system”.
A court transcript shared by BitMex Research shows COPA’s lawyer argue for Wright to attend the “extremely serious judicial proceeding” in person – Wright responded by arguing his autism diagnosis and family obligations would make in-person attendance difficult.
Wright, who in 2004 was convicted of contempt in Australia, assured the judge he knew “how serious” a contempt application is – before moments later reiterating he did not want to “be in court jet-lagged”.
In the UK, being found to be in contempt of court can carry a penalty of up to two years in prison.
A hearing to determine whether Wright is in contempt will be heard in December.
