Australian computer scientist and businessman who publicly claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto in May 2016. His claim was definitively rejected by the UK High Court in COPA v. Wright (March 2024), which found he had fabricated evidence on a grand scale.
Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman, born in October 1970 in Brisbane, Australia.
False Claim: On December 8, 2015, Wired and Gizmodo simultaneously published investigations identifying Wright as the possible creator of Bitcoin. On May 2, 2016, Wright publicly declared himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto in coordinated interviews with the BBC, The Economist, and GQ magazine. He published a blog post offering what he claimed was cryptographic proof — a digitally signed message using keys associated with early Bitcoin blocks.
Debunked Proof: The cryptographic “proof” was quickly debunked by the Bitcoin community. Security researchers demonstrated that Wright had reused an existing signature from a 2009 Bitcoin transaction rather than producing a new signature with the claimed keys. Wright promised further evidence but never delivered. He published a post stating: “I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me. But I can’t.”
Whitepaper Lawsuit: In February 2021, Wright sued the pseudonymous operator of bitcoin.org (Cobra) over Bitcoin whitepaper copyright. On June 28, 2021, the court issued a default judgment in Wright’s favor — not because the claim had merit, but because Cobra chose to protect his anonymity rather than reveal his identity to defend himself.
COPA v. Wright (2024): On March 14, 2024, Justice Mellor of the UK High Court delivered a definitive ruling in the case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). The court found that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, is not the person who operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, did not create the Bitcoin system, and did not author the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. The judge found that Wright had engaged in “deliberate and extensive forgery of documents” and was “an extremely dishonest witness.”
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Wired and Gizmodo simultaneously publish articles identifying Australian computer scientist Craig Steven Wright as the probable creator of Bitcoin, based on leaked documents and emails.
Australian businessman Craig Wright publicly declared himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto in coordinated interviews with BBC, The Economist, and GQ. He provided a cryptographic 'proof' on his blog that was quickly debunked — he had reused a signature from a 2009 transaction rather than producing a new one.
After the London High Court ordered bitcoin.org to remove the Bitcoin whitepaper, Cobra responded on Twitter with a scathing critique of the legal system and a declaration that cryptographic rules are superior to court-enforced rules.
Craig Wright sued the pseudonymous operator of bitcoin.org (Cobra) over Bitcoin whitepaper copyright. Cobra refused to reveal his identity to defend himself, resulting in a default judgment on June 28, 2021. The court ordered bitcoin.org to remove the whitepaper.
During Day 13 of the COPA v. Craig Wright trial, Martti Malmi testified via video link and submitted 260 emails (140,000 words) exchanged with Satoshi Nakamoto between May 2009 and February 2011. The complete email archive was published on GitHub.
The UK High Court rules definitively that Craig Steven Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, finding that he fabricated evidence on a grand scale to support his false claim.