Craig Wright forced to post that he is not actually Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto following UK ruling

Quick Take

  • U.K. Judge James Mellor ordered Craig Wright to post on his website, Slack and on X that he is not the founder of bitcoin, according to a court document filed on Tuesday.
  • Changes have been reflected on Wright’s website. 

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who spent years claiming to have created Bitcoin, has been forced by a judge to say he is actually not Satoshi Nakamoto. 

UK Judge James Mellor ordered Wright to post on his website, Slack and on X that he is not the founder of bitcoin, according to a court document filed on Tuesday.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance or COPA, sued Wright in April 2021 in an effort to stop him from asserting copyright claims over the Bitcoin whitepaper and database. COPA had asked for Wright to fess up publicly on those three platforms.

"I do not consider a notice on his website on its own to be adequate, since his primary mode of communication to those interested appears to be via X / Twitter or via his Slack channels. So I will order the publication of an amended version of the notice sought by COPA (to reflect the injunctions I am granting) on the homepage of his website (i.e. not merely by way of a link) for a period of six months and of the same amended notice pinned on his X / Twitter feed and on all Slack channels for a period of 3 months," Judge Mellor said in the court document.

Changes have been reflected on Wright's website.

"On 20 May 2024, Dr Craig Steven Wright was found by the High Court of England and Wales to have been dishonest in his claims to have been the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin)," it reads and includes statements about Wright not being Nakamoto.

In March, Judge Mellor ruled that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and said that the evidence against him was "overwhelming." During the trial, two key figures in Bitcoin's creation took the stand, including the pioneer of Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus system, Adam Back. 

Also on Tuesday, Judge Mellor referred Wright to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider perjury and forgery charges 


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About Author

Sarah is a reporter at The Block covering policy, regulation and legal happenings. Before, Sarah was a reporter with CQ Legal writing about securities regulation, which is where she first started reporting on crypto. Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other finance-related publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri and earned a degree in print and digital journalism. Sarah is based in Washington D.C., and is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.

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