Written by Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – The Australian computer scientist who claims to have invented Bitcoin is not the virtual currency's pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, a London High Court judge ruled on Thursday.
Craig Wright has long claimed to be the author of Bitcoin's foundational text, a 2008 white paper, which was published under a pseudonym.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has taken Wright to court, seeking to block lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and for a ruling that Wright is not Satoshi.
Judge James Mellor said at the end of closing arguments Thursday that the evidence that Wright was not Satoshi was “overwhelming.”
“Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper,” Mellor said. “Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto from 2008 to 2011.”
COPA, whose members include Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's payments company Block, said the ruling was “a victory for developers, the entire open source community, and truth.”
“For more than eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers lied about their identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used those lies to bully and intimidate developers in the Bitcoin community,” a COPA spokesperson said. said in a statement.
“It ends today with a court ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
A spokesperson for Mr Wright said: “We are not prepared to speak to anyone at this time.''
Suspicion of perjury
COPA accused Wright of repeatedly falsifying documents to support his claims, including during the trial, charges Wright denied during evidence.
His lawyer, Jonathan Huff, said at the start of the trial in February that Wright's claims were “a brazen lie, an elaborate false narrative backed by industrial-scale fabrications.”
“There are elements of Dr. Wright's conduct that deviate from the farcical,” Huff said, citing his alleged use of ChatGPT to create counterfeits.
But he added: “Dr. Wright's conduct is also deadly serious. He has pursued hundreds of billions of dollars in claims, including against numerous private individuals, based on his disingenuous claims that he was Satoshi.” added.
However, Wright's lawyers argued in court filings that Wright had provided “conclusive evidence of authorship of the white paper and creation of Bitcoin.”
In closing arguments, COPA's lawyers asked Mellor to refer the case to the Royal Prosecution Service “for consideration of prosecution for perjury and perversion of justice.”
Mellor did not say whether he would do so.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Potter)
