TLDR
- Craig Wright has admitted he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
- A UK court ordered Wright to publicly declare he is not Bitcoin’s creator.
- Wright is barred from filing further lawsuits related to his claims of being Satoshi.
- The case has been referred to prosecutors for potential perjury charges.
- Wright was found to have forged documents “on a grand scale” to support his false claims.
Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, has finally admitted he is not the cryptocurrency’s inventor.
This admission comes after a UK High Court ruling that found Wright had “lied extensively and repeatedly” in his attempts to prove he was Satoshi.
On July 16, 2024, Wright issued a legal disclaimer on his website, emphatically stating that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto. The disclaimer, ordered by UK Justice Mellor, cites the recent ruling from the United Kingdom High Court of Justice and directs visitors to the summary of findings presented by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).
The court-ordered declaration states that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper, does not own its copyright, did not adopt or operate under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto between 2008 and 2011, did not create the Bitcoin system, and is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
This public admission marks the end of Wright’s years-long claim to be the creator of the world’s first and most valuable cryptocurrency.
Since 2016, Wright had been asserting that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim that has now been thoroughly debunked in court.
The legal battle reached its peak in 2024 when COPA presented over 50 pieces of evidence dismantling Wright’s claims. During the trial, forensic experts and on-chain analysts testified that Wright had produced a trove of elaborate forgeries and metadata that showed signs of tampering.
Judge James Mellor agreed with COPA’s arguments, concluding that the creator of a highly technical system like Bitcoin would not make the careless errors found in Wright’s forgeries and distorted metadata. The judge ruled decisively that Wright was not Satoshi.
In addition to the public declaration, Wright has been barred from filing any future lawsuits in the UK related to his claims of being Satoshi. The court order states,
“Dr. Wright has been ordered not to commence any legal proceedings based on his false claims (by claim or counterclaim) or procure any other person to do so.”
The repercussions of Wright’s false claims may extend beyond civil court. Judge Mellor has referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration of potential perjury and forgery charges against Wright.
The CPS will now decide whether to prosecute Wright for what the judge called “wholescale perjury and forgery of documents,” and determine if a warrant for arrest and possible extradition is necessary.
