Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman who repeatedly claimed to be Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. These claims have been definitively rejected by a UK court.

Satoshi Claims

In December 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published articles suggesting Wright might be Satoshi Nakamoto, based on leaked documents and emails. Within days, follow-up reporting raised serious doubts about the evidence. In May 2016, Wright publicly claimed to be Satoshi and attempted to prove it by presenting a cryptographic signature to several prominent Bitcoin figures, including Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis. However, independent analysis revealed the signature was not valid — it reused data from an existing Bitcoin transaction rather than signing a new message.

Despite being unable to produce the one form of proof that would be conclusive — signing a message with Satoshi’s known private keys — Wright continued to assert the claim for years.

COPA Trial (2024)

In February 2024, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) brought Wright to trial in the UK High Court to seek a definitive ruling on whether he was Satoshi Nakamoto. After a thorough examination of evidence, Justice Mellor ruled in March 2024 that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, finding that Wright had extensively fabricated and forged documents to support his claim. The judgment was unequivocal, describing a pattern of deliberate dishonesty.

Legal Consequences

Following the COPA ruling, Wright faces potential contempt of court proceedings and perjury charges. His company, nChain, which was built around his Satoshi claims and related patents, has been significantly impacted. Wright had also pursued numerous lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and others based on his claimed identity, most of which have been dismissed or abandoned following the COPA judgment.

BSV

Wright was a central figure behind Bitcoin SV (BSV), a 2018 hard fork of Bitcoin Cash that claimed to represent the “original” Satoshi vision for Bitcoin. BSV has seen declining adoption and has been delisted from several major exchanges.