Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be the creator of Bitcoin under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, is at the heart of a legal battle that could have major consequences for the future of cryptocurrencies.
The Legal Battle over Craig Wright and the 111,000 BTC
Nicknamed “Faketoshi” Wright claims to have lost access to 111,000 bitcoins, worth over $5 billionfollowing a hack in 2020. So it has sued 16 developers of the Bitcoin Core software, asking them to return his bitcoins or pay him damages.
However, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has decided to take the defense of the developers and to dispute Wright’s claims. According to the fund, Wright never held the 111,000 bitcoins he claims, and his lawsuit is just one attempt to undermine innovation and decentralization bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund was created in 2021 by Dorsey, in collaboration with Elizabeth Stark, the CEO of Lightning Labs, and Alex Morcos, the co-founder of Chaincode Labs. Their goal is protect bitcoin developers and related projects against legal bullying that could interfere with their work. The fund has a $10 million budget to finance the legal fees of the targeted developers by lawsuits.
La Défense by the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund
In an open letter published in January 2021, the founders of the fund explained the reasons for their involvement in the lawsuit opposing Wright to Bitcoin Core Developers. They pointed out that the lawsuit was based on false and unfounded claimsand that he represented a threat for the future of Bitcoin and free software.
According to them, Wright was never in possession of the 111,000 bitcoins he claimsAnd he was never able to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. They recalled that Wright was accused of tampering with evidence and perjury in other Bitcoin-related court cases. They also claimed that Wright did not no legal right to the bitcoins he claims to have lostbecause it is a digital asset that does not belong only to the one who holds the corresponding private key.
Fund’s Rebuttal of Wright’s Allegations
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund has also denounced the absurdity of Wright’s requestwhich consists in require Bitcoin Core developers to modify the source code of the software to give him back his bitcoins. They explained that developers have no power over the network Bitcoin, which works according to a protocol decentralized and consensual. They added that the developers did not no fiduciary duty towards the users of the network, and that they are only responsible only code quality that they produce.
Wright’s lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers is currently in progress before the High Court in London. The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund filed a motion to dismiss on August 18, 2021, asking the court to dismiss Wright’s complaint as abusive and vexatious. The fund thus hopes to put an end to what it considers to be an attack on bitcoin and its fundamentals.
Source: The Crunch, Bitcoin.com, BeInCrypto, CoinDesk