Syed Rahman details the latest chapter in the legal saga surrounding Craig Wright.
The computer scientist Craig Wright has been accused of violating a court order by again falsely claiming he is the inventor of Bitcoin.
Wright was appearing at the High Court to face an accusation by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) that he breached a court order not to pursue any legal claims based on the false assertion that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer of the cryptocurrency.
A full hearing will now be held in December to determine whether Wright’s alleged breach of the court order is contempt of court.
A judge ruled in March that Wright was not Nakamoto and stated that Wright had committed large-scale forgery to support his false claim. His critics have branded him Faketoshi.
Wright has denied that he has breached the court order. He has written to COPA’s lawyers to say that the application to find him in contempt for breaching the order involves "baseless allegations designed solely to intimidate."
The application is related to a claim Wright is alleged to have made in October against Square Up Europe Ltd., a unit of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's payments company, Block Inc. Wright had been barred in July from relitigating any of his claims.
He was ordered to publish details of the ruling against him being the Bitcoin founder on the homepage of his website for six months and to pin it on his X social media feed and his channels on the messaging platform Slack for three months. The Crown Prosecution Service is currently considering whether to bring criminal charges against Wright and his associate Stefan Matthews for lying during their sworn witness testimony.
Significance
Determining who is Bitcoin’s inventor would be of huge significance for the crypto world. That person would own the rights to it, could bring proceedings to enforce their underlying intellectual property rights and would be a notable figure in the eyes of businesses, such as cryptocurrency exchange platforms, which use make use of the Bitcoin system.
The main issue regarding who is the creator of Bitcoin is anonymity. Remaining anonymous allows crypto creators to eliminate personal bias and centralised control, which can influence the cryptocurrency's development. Yet it can also lead to a lack of transparency and accountability. Many failed crypto projects have shown how anonymity can be used as a shield by bad actors, leading to lost investments and unethical behaviour.
The abuse of anonymity in cryptocurrencies poses major challenges for authorities worldwide as it enables criminal organisations to use crypto for fraud, money laundering, and other crimes. The tax implications are also significant - profits from crypto transactions are taxable in the UK but the authorities face significant issues ensuring taxes are paid due to the anonymity of many creators and traders.
