Craig Steven Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to have invented the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, will be appearing in a court hearing today, January 15, to defend his assertions of being the pseudonymous BTC creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
COPA Sues Self-Proclaimed Bitcoin Creator
In April 2021, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit community of tech and crypto companies, filed a lawsuit against Wright over his claims of being the creator of Bitcoin. The trial of the court case was scheduled for January 2024 and will be held in the United Kingdom (UK) High Court of Justice, with the case spanning from January to March 2024.
The lawsuit aims to determine whether Wright can substantiate his controversial claims with solid evidence, given that the legitimacy of Bitcoin’s origin remains a pivotal aspect of the cryptocurrency landscape.
The self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator has previously been in several court cases regarding his claims of inventing BTC. Earlier in 2021, Wright sued several BTC developers for refusing to retrieve 110,000 BTC his company, Tulip Trading, claimed it owned.
The CEO also has a long history of engaging in legal disputes, evident in his previous lawsuits where he alleged that crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken violated his rights by using the name “Bitcoin.”
The outcome of Wright’s legal battle has far-reaching consequences not only for him but also for the broader crypto community. If the UK court rules in favor of his claims, it would solidify his identity as the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto, effectively validating his long-debated proclamations.
In contrast, an unfavorable ruling would cast further doubts on his credibility and reawaken discussions about the true identity of BTC’s creator.
Craig Wright Forsakes BTC
In an X (formerly Twitter) post, Wright publicly forsook Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency he has continually claimed to have invented. He stated that he would not allow BTC to persist in what he perceives as a deformed state.
The self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator disclosed that he has received no payments for his efforts in supposedly inventing BTC. He asserted that secondary individuals had altered Bitcoin and did so against his wishes as the purported inventor of the cryptocurrency.
Wright disclosed in the lengthy post that he had attached a single payment and condition to his vision for Bitcoin. He revealed that he had explicitly mandated that BTC remained precisely as he allegedly designed it.
According to the self-claimed Bitcoin creator, his condition remains unmet. He stated that many had wrongly accused him of plagiarism and attempted to copy his alleged creation, transforming it into “something entirely different.”
“I conceived Bitcoin, and I unveiled it to the world. However, in BTC, they’ve torn it asunder. I’ve chosen to forsake BTC because I won’t allow it to exist in a grotesque form, both in its physical embodiment and its underlying connotations,” Wright said.