Key Points
- Craig Wright, claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, initiates a new lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers.
- Wright alleges that changes to Bitcoin’s original features have caused confusion and misled the public.
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who continues to assert he is the creator of Bitcoin, has once again sought legal recourse. In his latest legal action, Wright has brought a lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers, including Square Up Europe Limited, a subsidiary of Jack Dorsey’s Block.
Wright’s Allegations
The lawsuit was filed in London’s Chancery Division of the High Court. Wright alleges that the defendants have changed Bitcoin’s original features through the implementation of the Taproot upgrade and Segregated Witness (SegWit). According to Wright, these changes deviate from Bitcoin’s original vision.
Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, believes that the modifications to the Bitcoin blockchain have caused confusion and misled the public into thinking that Bitcoin retains its original attributes. He asserts that these changes undermine the essence of what Satoshi Nakamoto originally designed.
In response, Wright is seeking the difference in market value between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), the digital asset he claims is the true continuation of the original Bitcoin protocol. At the time of the filing, the disparity in value led Wright to pursue a claim of $1.18 billion in damages.
Wright’s Legal History
Wright is no stranger to the courtroom. In a previous lawsuit against Bitcoin.Org’s “Cøbra”, he claimed copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper, which he says he authored. However, his evidence was deemed insufficient to establish his claim to being the original creator of Bitcoin. Despite this, Wright continued to file legal actions claiming to be the creator of the Bitcoin blockchain. This led the court to ban him from filing more litigation relating to Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity.
Despite the court’s order, Wright is back in court arguing that Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) is the true version of the cryptocurrency originally designed by Satoshi Nakamoto.
In 2022, Wright failed to prove his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto during a legal dispute with Magnus Granath, a prominent Bitcoin advocate known as “Hodlonaut”. Wright sued Granath after he called him a “scammer” in a series of tweets in 2019. However, a Norwegian court ruled Granath’s comments were fair given the context of Wright’s public statements.
During the case, Wright was asked to prove his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto by signing a message using the private key associated with Bitcoin’s 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.
