Despite his claims to the contrary, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is not the mysterious Bitcoin creator who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, a London judge ruled Thursday.
The presiding judge, James Mellor, announced his four-part opinion shortly after the case wrapped.
“First,” he said, “Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software,” Mellor told the court.
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Wright, a computer programmer and tech businessman, was sued by the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), on the grounds that he pretended to be Satoshi in order to influence the sector. Wright first claimed that he was the mysterious Satoshi in 2016, although crypto experts quickly objected and called him a con man instead.
During the trial, Wright presented evidence intended to prove he was Satoshi, but expert witnesses for both the prosecution and defense agreed that the documents he provided were forged. The documents he provided, which were supposed to prove his authorship of Bitcoin, included the use of software that didn’t exist at the time when the documents were made. It was also determined that ChatGPT helped make one of the documents.
Wright’s version of the Bitcoin White Paper, the 2008 plan that laid the groundwork for Bitcoin, was written using a different software than the original one provided by Satoshi.
“Having considered all the evidence and submissions presented to me in this trial, I’ve reached the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming,” the presiding judge told the court.
In a statement, COPA praised the decision and said it was promising for the crypto community.
“This decision is a win for developers, for the entire open source community, and for the truth,” its statement reads.
