Craig wright is a computer scientist and a businessman. He is also the elusive creator of Bitcoin -- or so he claims.
Bitcoin was created in 2008 with its foundation laid in a white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto, who Wright has been claiming to be for years.
The controversial figure is now all set to appear in a UK high court to prove his claim of being the founder of bitcoin. The trial is likely to last six weeks.
Wright will appear in the London High Court on February 5 in a lawsuit that has been brought against him by Crypto Open Patent Alliance,
COPA, a non-profit organisation set up to keep cryptocurrency technology free from patents. COPA is suing Wright over his claims first made in 2016.
The Australian businessman reiterated his claim on January 13 in a post on X.
"I conceived Bitcoin, and I unveiled it to the world. However, in BTC, they've torn it asunder. I've chosen to forsake BTC because I won't allow it to exist in a grotesque form, both in its physical embodiment and its underlying connotations," he wrote.
Wright, who has his own website where he introduces himself as the "creator of Bitcoin" and claims BSV, or Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, is the original Bitcoin, doesn't inspire much confidence in the crypto community.
"The very concept of bitcoin from the beginning was open source," a COPA spokesperson told AFP.
It "raises a reasonable question: is Satoshi Nakamoto the kind of person who would sue people for (re)publishing the white paper? We think obviously not."
COPA has roped in several heavyweights --- including Coinbase and Block, both crypto platforms -- to its side in the authenticity trial against Wright.
"Craig Wright claims to be the mysterious creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. He isn't," Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal insisted before the start of the London hearing.
"But, undaunted by this basic truth, Wright has used his substantial financial backing to bring an endless stream of baseless litigations against crypto developers based on this lie, many of whom cannot even afford to present the most basic defense."
Wright had last month offered a settlement to COPA, Coinbase, and others in the Bitcoin intellectual property right case. But the offer doesn't seem to have convinced his opponents of his claim.
"This settlement offer preserves my objective of maintaining the integrity of the Bitcoin system as it was initially developed, while limiting (for all parties) the needless expense of a lengthy High Court trial, which would take our collective focus away from supporting, adopting and advancing digital currency technologies – not just my own work, but those of potential good faith competitors (my legal opponents included)," he wrote on his website.
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