Craig Wright, an Australian scientist who has long claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, is now being referred to British prosecutors for allegedly committing perjury. On Tuesday, a judge at the High Court in London concluded that Wright had lied extensively to support his false claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the 2008 Bitcoin white paper.
Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist who has asserted since 2016 that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the originator of Bitcoin. He attempted to convince the London court that he was the original inventor of Bitcoin, thereby holding intellectual property rights, including ownership of the copyright to the Bitcoin whitepaper and early versions of the Bitcoin software.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit organization aiming to eliminate patents and litigation barriers in the crypto industry, filed a lawsuit against Wright in 2021 to protect the crypto community and Bitcoin’s open-source technology.
Earlier this year, in March, British High Court Judge James Mellor ruled in London that Wright did not develop Bitcoin. “First, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment,” Mellor stated in March.
Judge Mellor has now decided to refer the matter concerning Wright’s claim to be Bitcoin’s inventor to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales. He added that by pursuing his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto through legal action in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S., Wright committed “a most serious abuse” of the court process.
Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the individual or group that introduced Bitcoin in 2008 through a whitepaper. Nakamoto was involved in Bitcoin and blockchain’s development until 2010 but has not been heard from since. The inventors of Bitcoin likely chose to remain anonymous to protect their identities from governments and to promote decentralized finance. Revealing Satoshi’s identity might undermine the effectiveness of the Bitcoin blockchain.