Judge rules Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto

CRAIG Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, he did not write the Bitcoin whitepaper, and he was not the author of Bitcoin's software, a judge has concluded.

The much-anticipated legal battle over who authored the 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper came to an abrupt conclusion today when the residing judge declared he'd heard enough and stated he would prepare a "fairly long judgement".

However, instead of ending the court session there, with the expectation of his written ruling to be delivered next week, Judge James Mellor decided to make an immediate statement,

"I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties," he announced.

"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.

"Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment. I will extend time for filing any appellant's notice until 21 days after the form of order hearing, which will be appointed following the hand down of my written judgment and I ask the parties to seek to agree an order giving effect to what I have just stated."

The unusual declaration gives a clue to the weight of evidence against the 53-year-old Australian and his long-held claim that he was the inventor of the original cryptocurrency and has always been the person behind the pseudonym Sataoshi Nakamoto.

Wright's lawyer - Anthony Grabiner - had the floor for the final words prior to the judge's announcement, as he desperately attempted to lay out reasons not to be able to reach a conclusion over the case, insisting there was "clear evidence demonstrating his authorship of the whitepaper and creation of Bitcoin".

Clearly irritated, the judge decided to air his brief thoughts on why he thought otherwise, and sided with the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey which brought the case to London asking it to draw a line under Wright's claims.

COPA argued that, despite first revealing himself as 'Satoshi' in 2016, Wright had been completely unable to present genuine evidence or proof to back his claims up. The alliance also accused Wright of regularly forging documents in an effort to support his claim. This may now lead to further charges involving potential fraud.

COPA's representative, Jonathan Hough, throughout the trial stuck by his opening statement that Wright's claims were "a brazen lie, an elaborate false narrative supported by forgery on an industrial scale", adding there were "elements of Dr Wright's conduct that stray into farce".

"Dr Wright's conduct is also deadly serious. On the basis of his dishonest claim to be Satoshi, he has pursued claims he puts at hundreds of billions of dollars, including against numerous private individuals," he said.

...More to follow...