Craig Wright has recently filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers, claiming that recent updates to Bitcoin’s protocol have strayed from its original design and caused financial harm. In his filing submitted to the Chancery Division of the High Court in London, Wright is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
The crux of the lawsuit revolves around changes made to the Bitcoin protocol through Taproot and Segregated Witness (SegWit). Wright alleges that these modifications have led to confusion in the market and have deviated from the vision of the original Bitcoin protocol. He argues that these changes have misled the public into believing that Bitcoin still maintains its original attributes.
Wright is basing his compensation claim on the disparity in value between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), a digital asset that he asserts is the true continuation of Bitcoin. As of the filing date, Bitcoin was trading at $62,000, while BSV was priced at $65. Wright’s lawsuit aims to recover $1.18 billion in damages, citing that Bitcoin Core’s upgrades have undermined his version of the cryptocurrency.
This legal action is just the latest in a series of legal battles for Wright, whose claims of being the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, have been met with skepticism by various courts. Despite previous legal setbacks, Wright is representing himself in this latest lawsuit and continues to assert his identity as Satoshi.
Previous court rulings have not been in Wright’s favor, including a 2022 case where he failed to provide cryptographic proof of holding the private keys associated with Bitcoin’s genesis block. Additionally, in 2023, a court determined that he did not have a legitimate claim to the Bitcoin whitepaper. Earlier this year, a UK court ruled against Wright, stating that he was not the creator of Bitcoin and barred him from pursuing further legal action related to his identity as Satoshi.
This ongoing legal saga underscores the complexities and controversies surrounding the origins and development of Bitcoin, as well as the challenges faced by individuals seeking to claim the mantle of Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright’s latest lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers is poised to further fuel debates within the cryptocurrency community regarding the true vision and direction of the world’s most well-known digital currency.
