Craig Wright
Australian computer scientist who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto; the UK High Court ruled in 2024 that he is not, and found he forged documents.
The wiki's angle: strictly what the courts found. Wright matters to fork history because Bitcoin SV formed around him, and several guests on the show, including Jonathan Bier, argue he damaged the big-block cause.[4][5]
Contents
The claim
Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto: the person who wrote and published the first version of the Bitcoin White Paper on 31 October 2008, released the first Bitcoin source code and created the Bitcoin system[1]. In December 2015 Wired and Gizmodo suggested he might be the inventor of Bitcoin, and a 2 May 2016 blog post associated him with Satoshi using a signature that critics said had been reused from a 2009 transaction[2].
COPA v Wright
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance sued in the High Court in London, with hearings in February and March 2024[2]. At the end of the trial Mr Justice Mellor declared that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper, not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto between 2008 and 2011, and not the person who created the Bitcoin system[1]. The judgment's fourth declaration is that he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software[1].
Findings on evidence
In the written judgment of 20 May 2024, the judge said he was “entirely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly”, mostly about “documents he had forged” to support the claim[1]. In July 2024 a High Court judge referred Wright to UK prosecutors over alleged perjury[2]. In December 2024 he was found in contempt over a fresh £911 billion claim and received a twelve-month suspended sentence[3].
Other litigation
In December 2021 the Kleiman v Wright verdict cleared him of most claims but ordered him to pay $100 million to W&K Info Defense Research[3].
Bitcoin SV
Bitcoin SV was created in November 2018 by a group led by Wright[4]. On S16 E60 Jonathan Bier said Wright “inadvertently had a huge positive impact for the small blockers”[5].
Heard on Bitcoin Takeover
On S17 E10 (March 2026), Mark Karpelès said of the Mt. Gox coins that Wright “he claims to have bought those Bitcoins in 2012.”[6]
An earlier episode was devoted to him: S5 E10, ‘Arthur van Pelt on Craig Wright’ (July 2020)[7].
References
- primaryCOPA v Wright, [2024] EWHC 1198 (Ch), judgment of Mellor J, 20 May 2024 [archived]
- secondaryWikipedia, “Craig Steven Wright” [archived]
- btkBitcoin SV: Big Blocks All the Way (BTCTKVR: Forks!) [archived]
- secondaryWikipedia, “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision” [archived]
- episodeS16 E60: Jonathan Bier — Craig Wright “inadvertently” helped the small blockers▶ listen at 2:20:47timestamp transcript-derived, pending a listen [archived]
- episodeS17 E10: Mark Karpelès on Craig Wright's Mt. Gox claim▶ listen at 1:56:26timestamp transcript-derived, pending a listen [archived]
- episodeS5 E10: Arthur van Pelt on Craig Wright [archived]