Craig Wright Updates Website After Court Order to Admit He Is Not Satoshi Nakamoto
Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who previously claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, has been compelled to update the homepage of his personal website with a legal notice disavowing his earlier assertions. The notice, mandated to be prominently displayed for six months, states that Wright made false claims in court proceedings about his identity as Nakamoto, including fabricating documents on a significant scale. These actions, described as a “most serious abuse” of legal systems in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S., were highlighted in the notice, which also directs visitors to the full judgment against Wright and the appendix detailing the forged documents he created.
This legal notice is part of a dissemination order issued by U.K. judge Justice James Mellor in response to a case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit organization representing Bitcoin developers, against Wright. COPA, supported by industry leaders like Block’s Jack Dorsey and Coinbase, as well as entities like the Human Rights Watch, initiated the lawsuit in 2021 to definitively establish that Wright is not Nakamoto. This legal action aimed to prevent Wright from claiming copyright of the Bitcoin whitepaper and from suing individuals critical of him or developers under the pretext of being the creator of Bitcoin.
Earlier this year, Mellor ruled that Wright was not the originator of Bitcoin. In a subsequent written judgment, Mellor explicitly stated that Wright had been untruthful throughout the trial and had engaged in document forgery. Recently, Mellor issued a final judgment in the case, recommending Wright and his associate, nChain co-founder Stefan Matthews, to U.K. prosecutors for potential perjury charges.
As part of the final judgment, Wright was instructed to post a similar notice on his Twitter account and the Slack channels where he interacts with supporters. Despite these directives, at the time of reporting, Wright had not updated his Twitter account with the legal notice. His latest post, dated May 20, expresses his intention to challenge Mellor’s ruling that he is not Nakamoto. Mellor’s final judgment noted that Wright had not formally sought permission to appeal, contrary to his statements on social media.
