A British judge ruled on Thursday March 14 that Australian Craig Wright, who claimed the authorship of bitcoin, was not its creator. “I have come to the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming” to declare that “Dr Wright is not the person who created the bitcoin system”neither “the author of the initial versions of the bitcoin software”declared Judge James Mellor at the close of the trial, explaining that he would detail his reasoning in his upcoming judgment.
The 53-year-old computer scientist and entrepreneur “is not the author of the bitcoin “white paper””a text which details the founding principles of this cryptocurrency, nor one which “operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto during the period from 2008 to 2011”also said the judge, referring to the enigmatic developer known as the father of bitcoin.
For almost a month and a half, the British High Court of Justice examined the claims of the man his detractors nickname “Faketoshi” (for “false Satoshi”), who claimed copyright on this ” White Book “ founder, as well as the code of this cryptocurrency.
Not a single “verifiable document”
THE “Doctor Wright has failed to provide even a single verifiable and reliable document to support” his words, argued Tuesday during the trial Jonathan Hough, the lawyer for the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), an association which aims to eliminate patents on technologies linked to cryptocurrencies. The Copa brings together heavyweights like the Coinbase exchange platform and the company Block, specializing in digital payments.
Computer experts from both parties concluded in particular that the original file of the founding text of bitcoin would in fact have been produced in the OpenOffice software, and not via the LaTex document composition system as Mr. Wright suggests.
Defense lawyer Anthony Grabiner, for his part, argued that his client had the skills related to law, monetary transactions and IT consistent with those necessary to invent bitcoin. During her testimony, Mr. Wright’s sister praised his attraction to Japanese culture.
The Copa “will ask after judgment” for British prosecutors to consider criminal charges for “perjury and obstruction of justice”, explained the association in its final arguments, consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP). Justice Mellor did not say when he would make his written judgment public.
The outcome of this case will determine that of another, pitting Mr. Wright against 26 developers, individuals as well as companies like the Coinbase platform, which he accuses of having infringed on his intellectual property rights. “This decision is a victory”because it puts an end to the ” lie “ used by Mr. Wright “to harass and intimidate developers in the bitcoin community” for eight years, a Copa spokesperson told AFP.
“Satoshi understood the value of decentralization and built bitcoin so that it could not be controlled by a single person or entity”reacted to AFP a spokesperson for the Kraken platform, a member of the Copa and which was the subject of legal proceedings by Mr. Wright.