The United Kingdom Court of Appeal recently rejected Craig Wright’s attempt to appeal a High Court ruling that declared he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
Satoshi is known throughout the world as the creator of Bitcoin, and Wright has long claimed that this is his pseudonym, meaning that he created the world’s first cryptocurrency. The ruling says that this isn’t actually the case.
What Did the Court Decide?
Wright is fighting a years-long battle to prove that he’s a creator of Bitcoin. Recently, UK courts have decided that Wright has provided no sources for such a claim. He appealed this decision at a higher court, and the court sustained the initial ruling.
According to the court, Wright provided false arguments for being Nakamoto, including those suspected to be created with artificial intelligence.
Who is Craig Wright?
Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman. He has also tried to use the media attention that came from his claim to make business gains. London Review of Books spent time with Wright and his media team during their attempt to report on the issue and came to similar conclusions.
Using Falsehoods
The court decided that Wright had used falsehoods in his appeal. Some of these are quite bizarre as he refers to court cases supposedly in his favor, which aren’t real but created by AI. One example cited by the court was a case labeled Anderson v. the Queen [2013] UKPC 2, which the court said “appear to be AI-generated hallucinations”.
“It is not credible on its face, and even less so given the judge’s findings as to Dr. Wright’s credibility,” the court stated, adding, “The appeals have no prospect of success whatever, and there is no other reason to hear them.”
The Reaction of the Crypto Community
The crypto community has long been against Wright and his claims. Media personalities and experts in the crypto industry have claimed that Wright lies about his identity.
The community also cares about the reputation that it has in the general public and, especially, in the world of finance. Claims such as the ones made by Wright make the crypto industry look unserious and even fraudulent. The industry, which is now very much part of the financial mainstream, wants to avoid such appearances.
Crypto Moment
The Court’s decision happened within a very lucrative moment for crypto investors and holders. The best crypto exchanges in the UK are experiencing growth and wide interest in Bitcoin, as well as in other cryptocurrencies. The value of Bitcoin itself is now at $97K.
There’s also a change in public attitude about Bitcoin. It’s now widely accepted as a legitimate financial asset. This was further increased with the introduction of ETFs that have brought crypto to traditional stock markets.
Plans for the Future
The future will probably be even more lucrative for Bitcoin investors. Bitcoin may attract another $2 trillion of investments in 2025 based on expectations of continued liquidity injections in the world’s largest economy.
Such plans show that Bitcoin has gone a long way from its initial creation, regardless of who actually created it. It’s now a widely accepted financial asset.
Who Created Bitcoin?
Bitcoin was first created via a white paper in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who Nakamoto was or even if such a person actually exists. Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of Bitcoin, known as the Genesis Block, and was actively involved in its early development.
Over the years, there have been a few ideas about who Nakamoto could be – other than Craig Wright.
Dorian Nakamoto
An article written for Newsweek in 2014 suggested that a Japanese-American physicist named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto was the creator of Bitcoin. Dorian, however, said that he’s not involved in Bitcoin in any way and that he didn’t even know what it is.
Hal Finney
Hal Finney was the person who received the first Bitcoin from the original founder. He was a cryptographer, and many believed that he was on both ends of that transaction. Finney is highly believed to have worked with Satoshi Nakamoto, but he claimed that he wasn’t him.
Adam Back
Adam Back is a cryptographer who created a proof of work system called Hashcash. This system was mentioned in the whitepaper that created Bitcoin. Therefore, many believe it’s Black who created Bitcoin. He, too, has denied it.