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British judge rejects scientist’s claim to be the inventor of Bitcoin
A judge of the High Court in London governed Australian computer scientist Craig Wright lied and forged documents on Monday (May 20) to support his false claim that he was the inventor of bitcoin.
Judge James Mellor ruled in March that the evidence that Wright was not the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” and explained his reasons for this conclusion on Monday, Reuters reported Monday.
The judge said Wright had lied and falsified documents to support his claim to be the inventor, and that his lawsuits against developers and his views on bitcoin also went against his claims, according to the report.
The lawsuit in which this decision was issued was brought by Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and was aimed at preventing Wright from suing bitcoin developers, the report said.
In a Monday blog post that following the rule, COPA wrote that the ruling “forensically demolishes Wright’s fraudulent claims.”
“This decision represents a watershed moment for the open source community and, more importantly, a definitive victory for truth,” a COPA spokesperson said in the post. “Developers can now continue their important work of maintaining, iterating, and improving the bitcoin network without risking their personal livelihood or fearing costly and time-consuming litigation from Craig Wright.”
In a Monday send on X, Wright said: “I fully intend to appeal the court’s decision on the identity issue. I would like to recognize and thank all my supporters for their unwavering encouragement and support.”
Wright came forward claiming to be the creator of bitcoin in May 2016, claiming three publications – BBC, The Economist and GQ – and sending messages digitally signed with cryptographic keys created during the early days of bitcoin’s development.
“These are the blocks used to send 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney in January [2009] as the first bitcoin transaction,” Wright said at the time during his demonstration.
In December 2019, when a Florida judge ruled that Wright’s late partner owned half of all the coins Wright had mined during 2013 and half of the intellectual property created, some cryptocurrency experts he thought he was an impostor.
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