Man Who Claims He’s Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Wins Appeal in UK Copyright Lawsuit

Updated: 22 July 2023

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The man who claims he’s Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto had an appeal upheld in a UK court and is now able to contend in further legal action that the Bitcoin file format is sufficiently well defined for copyright protection.

Australian Craig Wright, who has claimed since at least 2016 that he created Bitcoin (BTC), had lost a February lawsuit he brought against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and businesses including Blockstream, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), and Block. He claimed then that the defendants had violated his copyright to the so-called Bitcoin white paper, its file format, and his database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain.

The latest ruling enables Wright to argue for copyright protection for the Bitcoin file format under UK law. But his claim that he is Nakamoto and that he developed the 2008 Bitcoin white paper, written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, is controversial. The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund (BLDF), set up by former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey and that is aiding defendants in Wright’s case, denounced the UK court ruling.

“Today’s appellate ruling says nothing on the subject of whether the defendants in the lawsuit violated Dr Wright’s copyright or database rights,” it said in a statement. “These issues will be decided at a full trial, but only if Dr Wright first demonstrates that he is Satoshi Nakamoto in a trial of only that issue in early 2024.”

No Evidence Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto

It added that it was extremely confident that Wright would fail to prove that he is Nakamoto, ”just as he has failed to produce any evidence to back up his claim for the last seven years.” In such case, it said, his copyright and database rights will not be tried in court and yesterday’s decision will have had no effect.

But BLDF added the the fact the UK courts allowed his arguments to be heard is extremely dangerous for the crypto community and the entire world because it ”sets a dangerous precedent where developers can be sued for violating the file format of open source software that someone else claims to have created.“

Not should receive.

Has. Always had.

And, this only became an issue when Core stole it. Set in Stone, the wishes of the creator matter.

Get it right. https://t.co/0YhYQe1s8F

— Dr Craig S Wright (@Dr_CSWright) July 22, 2023

Is Craig Wright Satoshi Nakamoto?

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist born in 1970, claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic person who created Bitcoin.

According to Wright, he and his friend, the late computer security specialist Dave Kleiman, were both involved in the design of Bitcoin. He made these claims in response to articles published in December 2015 by Wired and Gizmodo that suggested he might be Nakamoto. The reports cited blog posts by Wright dating to 2009, days before Bitcoin’s beta release.

https://twitter.com/SVAgency1/status/1680257716487352320?s=20

But soon after, evidence from the Wayback Machine showed that the post might have been backdated and published years later, in 2013 or 2014. Wired later changed its stance, expressing doubts regarding Wright’s claims and saying it may have been a “hoax.”

The Bitcoin community was intrigued and, unsurprisingly, dubious of Wright’s claims, too.

Some people agreed with him. Gavin Andresen, a director of the Bitcoin Foundation, who communicated with Nakamoto while developing the first version of Bitcoin, declared that he was “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt” that Wright was Satoshi.

Arguably the only way to prove it is by producing the private keys to Satoshi’s Bitcoin address, which Wright has never been able to do. According to a 2020 report by Decrypt, Wright’s attorneys confirmed that he did not possess Satoshi’s keys and would not say who else had them or why. Wright’s promises of clarification have not materialised.

In the intervening years, Wright sued other crypto industry figures, specifically those who openly disputed his claims. Most of his lawsuits were either rejected or ultimately unsuccessful. For instance, a Norwegian court ruled in October that crypto influencer Hodlonaut did not slander Wright when he referred to him as a “pathetic scammer” and “fraud” who was “clearly mentally ill.”

I guess they're starting to realize…😉

"@Dr_CSWright wins his appeal against the developers concerning fixation of the #Bitcoin File Format"

"Has Wright ever lost in the Court of appeal? No wonder he appeals everything if he keeps winning there! I think hodlonaut lost there… pic.twitter.com/xw6PiCHiX8

— Ryuushi (@_electronicCash) July 21, 2023

Wright also went to court in 2021 to defend himself against a claim of intellectual property theft, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty by a former business partner. Wright was found guilty of IP theft and was asked to pay $100 million in damages.

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