Coinspeaker Craig Wright Launches Fresh Legal Battle Against Bitcoin Core Developers
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist and businessman who continues to claim he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), has once again turned to the courts. This time, Wright has filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers, with Square Up Europe Limited, a subsidiary of Jack Dorseyâs Block, among the defendants.
The lawsuit, filed in the Chancery Division of the High Court in London earlier this week, accused the defendants of altering Bitcoinâs original features through the implementation of the Taproot upgrade and Segregated Witness (SegWit). Wright asserted that these changes deviate from Bitcoinâs original vision.
Allegations of Misrepresentation
According to the self-acclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, the modifications to the Bitcoin blockchain have caused âconfusion within the marketâ and misled the public into believing that Bitcoin retains its original attributes. Wright claimed that the changes undermine the essence of what Satoshi Nakamoto originally designed and implemented.
In response, the Australian computer programmer is seeking the difference in market value between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Satoshiâs Vision (BSV), the digital asset he claimed is the true continuation of the original Bitcoin protocol. At the time of the filing on October 10, BTC was trading at $62,000 (ÂŁ48,000), while BSV stood at $65 (ÂŁ50), leading Wright to pursue a claim of $1.18 billion (ÂŁ911 million) in damages.
Previous Legal Challenges
Wright is no stranger to litigation. In a previous lawsuit against Bitcoin.Orgâs âCĂžbraâ he claimed copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, which he says he authored.
However, the Australian businessman lost that case when Lord Justice Arnold ruled that his evidence was âoverwhelminglyâ insufficient to establish his claim to being the original creator of Bitcoin. The court concluded that Wright had no legitimate claim to the document and could not prove that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.
Despite this setback, Wright continued to file legal actions claiming to be the brains behind the Bitcoin blockchain. This continuous legal battle led the court to ban him from filing more litigation relating to Satoshi Nakamotoâs identity.
Undeterred by the courtâs order, he is now back to court to argue that Bitcoin Satoshiâs Vision (BSV) is the true version of the cryptocurrency originally designed by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Defamation Case and Further Controversy
Another example of Wrightâs failure to proof his Satoshi Nakamoto claim was seen in 2022 during a legal dispute with Magnus Granath, a prominent Bitcoin advocate known by the online alias âHodlonaut.â
Wright sued Granath after he called him a âscammerâ in a series of tweets in 2019. However, a Norwegian court ruled that Granathâs comments were not defamatory, determining that they were fair given the context of Wrightâs public statements.
In its ruling, the court stated:
âFraudâ or âfraudulentlyâ in this context refers to âsomeone who is not what they claim to be.â Similarly, âfakeâ refers to something âillegitimateâ or âfalse,â and âscammerâ must be understood to mean âswindlerâ or âcheat maker.â
During the case, Wright was asked to prove his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto by signing a message using the private key associated with Bitcoinâs genesis block. As with previous attempts to prove his claim, Wright was unable to do so, later stating that he had destroyed the hard drive containing the secret phrase to the wallet.
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Craig Wright Launches Fresh Legal Battle Against Bitcoin Core Developers