The self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, was granted permission to appeal to the courts in the United Kingdom, which is a significant move in the continuing legal struggle over the ownership rights to Bitcoin.
The decision opens the door for Craig Wright to challenge the Bitcoin copyright claim in the United Kingdom.
UK court grants Craig Wright a BTC appeal
According to a recent court filing, Craig Wright has been allowed an appeal by a British court to present his arguments in a copyright action about Bitcoin (BTC).
Craig Wright has asserted his authorship of Bitcoin since 2016 and has initiated legal proceedings against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and multiple entities such as Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block. The lawsuit alleges infringements on his copyright about the Bitcoin white paper, its file format, and database rights associated with the Bitcoin blockchain.
Craig Wright’s campaign for credit as Bitcoin’s original developer and ownership of the cryptocurrency’s intellectual property has taken a huge step forward with the appeal ruling. The copyright claim at issue here concerns the right of a critical piece of infrastructure in the blockchain and crypto ecosystems, and its resolution might have far-reaching consequences for the whole crypto sector.
The UK court agreed that Craig Wright had a valid argument, so they allowed him to appeal and are now reviewing all of the evidence from the trial. This follows past court procedures where Wright’s statements were heavily criticized and doubted.
The lawsuit has also sparked discussion in the crypto and legal communities, with many people questioning Craig Wright’s identity as Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite Wright’s claims, many authorities have publicly refuted him, insisting that the genuine identity of Nakamoto is still unknown to this day.
In February, a different verdict stated that Craig Wright’s arguments weren’t strong enough to prove that the Bitcoin file format was first recorded, which is necessary for copyright protection.
Craig Wright attempted to have Bitcoin and its fork, Bitcoin Cash, shut down in the UK for infringing on his intellectual property, but the court at the time rejected his request.
“The Claimants may consider themselves unlucky to have had their application for leave to serve out come before a Judge with at least some understanding of the technology involved here,” the February judgment reading “denying permission to appeal” reads the decision from February, denying permission to appeal.
Additionally, Without directly referencing the ruling, Craig Wright tweeted on July 20: “The legal protection of intellectual property is necessary to ensure the rights of creators and innovators and to encourage the production of new ideas, inventions, and creative works.”
Craig Wright claims his Bitcoin Satoshi Vision fork from another Bitcoin split is the original and true Bitcoin blockchain.
However, in January 2024, a trial will be held to decide whether or not Wright is the mysterious Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Witnesses prove Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto
After Wright claimed to be Nakamoto in court in Oslo, witnesses there presented forensic evidence casting doubt on the legitimacy of the documents he produced. Inconsistencies were present in these documents, such as using fonts that weren’t available when they were purportedly written.
According to the Defense Fund, which acts as the developers’ legal agent, Wright has allegedly failed to produce any evidence to support his assertion that he is Nakamoto.
Craig Wright, they argue, must prove he is Nakamoto before the court can rule on the three essential claims made in the case. The trial is scheduled to begin somewhere in the first half of 2024.
Bitcoin’s code is open-sourced and freely released under a license from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, allowing anyone to modify the program for any purpose, including in proprietary applications.
On the other hand, Wright claims that the Bitcoin Core developers constitute a centralized entity known as the “Bitcoin Partnership,” which exercises control over the Bitcoin network.
Additionally, new research has cast doubt on Wright’s assertion that he is Bitcoin’s anonymous founder and suggests that Nakamoto is more likely to be a group than a single individual.
A possible team behind the Bitcoin white paper is indicated using “we” and “I” throughout the document. Nakamoto’s publications have been analyzed linguistically, providing further proof.
The English on the white paper is flawless, with no grammatical or spelling errors and a thorough grasp of technical vocabulary. A number of people might have been engaged, as Nakamoto’s writing style appears to vary between online forums and email exchanges.
Different writing styles were found in forum posts attributed to Nakamoto, lending credence to the idea that more than one person uses the pseudonym.
