[The Bitcoin White Paper is now back on the Bitcoin.org website]
The Bitcoin white paper has been re-uploaded to the Bitcoin.org website after Craig Wright failed to prove in court that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of the Bitcoin protocol.
The website was forced to remove the PDF in 2021 after Wright successfully sued Cøbra, the anonymous operating group of Bitcoin.org, accusing it of copyright infringement. However, Wright's copyright victory lost its validity as his Satoshi Nakamoto claim was completely disproven, so his claim to have authored the white paper no longer stood.
Bitcoin.org maintainer Hennadii Stepanov shared a link to the PDF on X announcing the return of the Bitcoin white paper.
When Wright initially sued Cøbra, Cøbra was required to appear in court, which would have jeopardized his anonymity. Cøbra's refusal to appear in court resulted in Wright winning the case and paying Wright's legal costs of £35,000 ($40,100).
Bitcoin.org had to stop providing the Bitcoin white paper to British users and instead displayed a quote from Satoshi Nakamoto: “This takes advantage of the fact that information is easy to spread but difficult to suppress.”
Nonetheless, many publishers decided to collectively share the Bitcoin whitepaper in protest. Jack Dorsey’s Square crypto arm hosted the white paper, as did multiple governments including the United States, Estonia, and Colombia.
Craig Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but his white paper is full of errors. Users compiled a list of over 100 websites hosting Bitcoin whitepapers as a way to counter Wright when he threatened to sue anyone who published the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Ultimately, the UK High Court ruled in March 2024 that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto. The judge found that Craig Wright had lied a lot, used "technical jargon" and was "not as smart as he thought he was".
