Eight-Year Legal Battle Ends, Judge Rules Craig Wright Not Satoshi Nakamoto

A recent ruling by U.K. Judge James Mellor has put an end to the long-standing claim by Dr. Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, that he is the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The ruling follows a legal battle initiated by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which sought to establish that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto to prevent him from suing Bitcoin developers.

Judge Mellor declared that the evidence overwhelmingly showed that Wright was not the author of the Bitcoin white paper and did not operate under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto between 2008 and 2011.

The COPA, which includes members such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Block (SQ), hailed the ruling as a victory for developers and the open-source community.

COPA accused Wright of lying about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto for over eight years and using that lie to intimidate developers in the Bitcoin community.

Wright's legal team argued that he had provided clear evidence demonstrating his authorship of the white paper and creation of Bitcoin. However, COPA accused Wright of repeatedly forging documents to support his claim, including during the trial itself.

COPA's lawyer described Wright's claim as "a brazen lie, an elaborate false narrative supported by forgery on an industrial scale."

In response to the ruling, Wright's spokesperson stated that he was not prepared to speak to anyone at this time. COPA's lawyers have requested that the case be referred to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of prosecution for the offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

The legal battle between Wright and COPA began in 2021 and concluded recently after a trial that started in a UK courtroom on February 5.

Wright had previously attempted to settle the intellectual property case with COPA in January, but the proposal was publicly rejected by COPA on Twitter.