Key Points
- The Bitcoin white paper has returned to Bitcoin.org after an unsuccessful legal effort by Craig Wright to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto.
- Wright’s assets, worth £6.7 million ($8.4 million), have been frozen by a UK court to prevent him from avoiding court costs.
The white paper for Bitcoin has been reinstated on the Bitcoin.org website. This follows an unsuccessful legal endeavor by Craig Wright to establish himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of the protocol.
Hennadii Stepanov, who manages the Bitcoin.org site, reported the white paper’s return by posting a link to the PDF on platform X.
Legal Constraints and Court Battles
Previously, due to legal issues, Bitcoin.org had to limit UK users’ access to the Bitcoin white paper. Instead, they displayed a significant quote from Satoshi Nakamoto, which emphasized the ease of spreading information and the difficulty of suppressing it.
In 2021, Wright won a copyright infringement case against Cobra, the anonymous group that operates the website. The court ordered the removal of the white paper PDF after Wright won by default when Cobra chose not to defend themselves.
This resulted in Cobra being required to pay £35,000 ($40,100) towards Wright’s legal expenses. Wright had previously applied for US copyright registration for the Bitcoin white paper in 2019.
In 2023, Wright filed a lawsuit against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and a group of companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, alleging copyright violations related to the Bitcoin white paper, its file format, and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain.
Legal Defense and Discrediting of Claims
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund reacted by noting the trend of abusive lawsuits against notable Bitcoin contributors. The defense fund stated that such lawsuits deter development due to the time, stress, financial burden, and legal risks involved.
However, Wright’s copyright victory is now irrelevant as his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto and authoring the white paper have been thoroughly discredited, making his copyright claim invalid.
This detailed verdict was related to a case brought against Wright by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a group of leading companies seeking to stop Wright from claiming ownership over Bitcoin’s core intellectual property.
COPA claimed that Wright had participated in a complex scheme of forgery and deception to produce evidence supporting his claim of being Nakamoto.
Wright’s assets, valued at 6.7 million British pounds ($8.4 million), were frozen after a UK court approved a plan to prevent him from escaping court costs.
The Bitcoin white paper is now under an MIT open-source license, which allows anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose.
