U.K. Judge James Mellor has declared that Australian computer scientist Craig Steven Wright is indeed not the author of the Bitcoin Whitepaper or Satoshi Nakamoto — the mysterious creator of Bitcoin.
The historic ruling puts an end to the lengthy legal brawl between Wright and the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA).
Craig Wright Not Satoshi
The legal battle over Craig Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto reached a crucial juncture when a judge definitively ruled that he was not the pseudonymous founder of the Bitcoin network.
Judge James Mellor made it clear that evidence overwhelmingly proves that Wright was not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and thus did not create Bitcoin and its supplementary technologies.
“I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. 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,” wrote Twitter founder CEO Jack Dorsey, quoting the judge’s ruling. “Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software.”
Wright first publicly claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto in 2016. The Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) creator has taken legal action against Bitcoin Core developers and a bunch of firms, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, for copyright infringements relating to the Bitcoin white paper and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain. Wright has even gone after non-cryptocurrency companies. Last April, Wright hinted that American multinational corporation Apple broke copyright laws after a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper was found hidden in MacOS.
Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) lodged a lawsuit against Wright in April 2021 to prevent him from further bullying and intimidating developers and other crypto community members or proclaiming intellectual property rights over the Bitcoin whitepaper and database.
The ruling represents a defining moment in the long-standing speculations and discussions surrounding the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. While Justice Mellor’s decision does not uncover who Satoshi is, it has made the cryptoverse sigh with relief after conclusively asserting that Craig Wright is not the creator of the world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency.