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The world may never learn the identity of the mysterious individual who created Bitcoin, but it seems like we can officially rule out one potential suspect: Craig Wright, an Australian man who’s spent years arguing he is actually the mastermind known as “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Bitcoin is currently in the midst of its latest resurgence as the cryptocurrency experiences yet another spike that saw it surpass the $73,000 mark for the first time in its history earlier this week as it continues to flirt with record highs.
It’s safe to say Bitcoin has come a long way since the world was introduced to the concept that was outlined in the “white paper” that was published online in 2007 by an author who adopted the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto while outlining the concept of the blockchain.
That de facto manual would serve as the basis for the digital currency that was unveiled in January 2009 before it was first used in a transaction that pinned its value at approximately one-tenth of a cent.
It’s safe to assume the visionary commonly referred to as simply “Satoshi” is now a very, very, very wealthy man (or woman), but that’s been impossible to verify because no one has been able to figure out their true identity for more than 15 years.
That’s not for lack of trying. In 2015, both Wired and Gizmodo obtained evidence that suggested Satoshi was actually Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist and crypto evangelist. However, both of those outlets subsequently discovered evidence that suggested Wright was stringing them along while orchestrating a fairly elaborate hoax to draw attention to himself.
Wright has nonetheless continued to position himself as the inventor of Bitcoin while declining to share any evidence to support that claim despite how theoretically easy it should be to obtain.
According to Wired, that led to the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) asking a court in the United Kingdom to settle the matter once and for all in a six-week trial that came to an end on Thursday when Justice James Mellor issued a fairly scathing ruling that stated, in part:
“The evidence is overwhelming.
First, that 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.”
COPA originally brought the case to court because Wright has routinely positioned himself as Satoshi while arguing others have violated his intellectual property in lawsuits he’s filed against people and organizations who’ve harnessed Bitcoin and the blockchain for their own purposes.
It seems like this should end the debate once and for all, but based on Wright’s track record, it’s a bit hard to imagine he’ll go away quietly.