Craig Wright forced to post that he is not actually Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto following UK ruling

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who spent years claiming to have created Bitcoin, has been forced by a judge to say he is actually not Satoshi Nakamoto. 

UK Judge James Mellor ordered Wright to post on his website, Slack and on X that he is not the founder of bitcoin, according to a court document filed on Tuesday.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance or COPA, sued Wright in April 2021 in an effort to stop him from asserting copyright claims over the Bitcoin whitepaper and database. COPA had asked for Wright to fess up publicly on those three platforms.

“I do not consider a notice on his website on its own to be adequate, since his primary mode of communication to those interested appears to be via X / Twitter or via his Slack channels. So I will order the publication of an amended version of the notice sought by COPA (to reflect the injunctions I am granting) on the homepage of his website (i.e. not merely by way of a link) for a period of six months and of the same amended notice pinned on his X / Twitter feed and on all Slack channels for a period of 3 months,” Judge Mellor said in the court document.

Changes have been reflected on Wright’s website.

“On 20 May 2024, Dr Craig Steven Wright was found by the High Court of England and Wales to have been dishonest in his claims to have been the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin),” it reads and includes statements about Wright not being Nakamoto.

In March, Judge Mellor ruled that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and said that the evidence against him was “overwhelming.” During the trial, two key figures in Bitcoin’s creation took the stand, including the pioneer of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work consensus system, Adam Back. 

Also on Tuesday, Judge Mellor referred Wright to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider perjury and forgery charges