July 17, 2024 Australian Craig Wright has finally conceded that he is not the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, following a string of legal defeats in the High Court of England and Wales. The judge in these cases has also recommended an investigation into Wright for potential perjury.
For years, Wright has asserted that he is Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the Bitcoin whitepaper and creator of its reference architecture. Wright even went so far as to demand that the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), an organization dedicated to maintaining open access to cryptocurrency intellectual property, remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from its website, claiming it infringed his copyright. COPA, backed by prominent figures such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and companies like Coinbase and Block, took the matter to court.
The High Court consolidated these disputes into a single case known as COPA v Wright Identity Issue Trial. Mr. Justice James Mellor delivered a damning judgment, stating that Wright “lied to the court repeatedly and extensively” and that his evidence of being Satoshi Nakamoto was “forged … on a grand scale.” This judgment echoed Mellor’s earlier rulings from March and May, reaffirming that Wright was not the inventor of Bitcoin.
In a recent judgment, Mr. Justice Mellor instructed Wright to post a message on his personal website acknowledging the court’s findings. Wright was also ordered to share the same content on his X account and in the Slack channels he frequents. However, the judge denied COPA’s request for Wright to publish an ad in The Times, a newspaper he previously used to assert his Nakamoto claim.
Wright is also facing a hefty legal bill, with the court ordering him to pay over £6 million in COPA’s legal costs. This financial burden might be challenging to enforce, as Wright reportedly earns around £160,000 per year. More significantly, the judge has suggested that the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service consider prosecuting Wright for document forgery and perjury, crimes that could result in fines or imprisonment if proven.
