A man has been convicted in the UK after repeatedly claiming to be the inventor of Bitcoin, using that claim to sue websites and services for copyright infringement.
A UK computer scientist has been convicted of contempt of court after repeatedly and falsely claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the as-yet-anonymous inventor of Bitcoin. He then used these claims to launch multiple lawsuits claiming intellectual property rights over the cryptocurrency, seeking a total of $1.2 trillion in damages.
In March, a high court in the United Kingdom ruled that Wright was not Satoshi and ordered him to stop pretending to be one. He did not do so and has been given a 12-month suspended prison sentence. This means that if he pretends to be Satoshi, he will have to go to prison.
Judicial terrorism
The court describes Wright’s actions as ”judicial terrorism”. The man has been claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto since 2016. The anonymous inventor of Bitcoin has never come forward. As the holder of a large part of the crypto coins, Satoshi would also be one of the wealthiest people in the world. However, Wright could never provide hard evidence for his claims and is also not seen as the real Satoshi in the broader crypto world.
To get his way, he launched a series of lawsuits against organizations and people who did not recognize him, including the payment service Square. In total, Wright claimed more than a trillion dollars in damages. These actions led to a coalition of crypto companies (the Crypto Open Patent Alliance) filing a case with the UK High Court to prevent further lawsuits. That ruling came in March. Wright’sWright’s arguments were dismissed by the judge as “legal nonsense.”
He now faces jail time if he continues to press his claims. The chances of him going to jail are slim, though. Wright is an Australian living in the UK, but he followed the trial via video call from, as he put it, ”Asia”. If an international warrant is ever issued, he must be arrested in a country that deports suspects to the UK.
Wright is one of several people who claim to be Satoshi. However, no one with that claim can provide the necessary evidence, so the real identity of the Bitcoin inventor remains a mystery for the time being.