‘Bitcoin Creator’ Craig Wright Drags Critics to Court to ‘Prove’ He’s Satoshi
Craig Wright would rather face a judge than the court of public opinion. | Source: Shutterstock
By CCN.com: Australian crypto entrepreneur Craig Wright insists he’s bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto and is eager to prove his claims in court.
On April 14, Wright fired off several angry letters, threatening to sue crypto podcaster Peter McCormack and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Wright accused McCormack and Buterin of defaming him when they called him “a fraud” and said he was lying when he says he’s Satoshi Nakamoto.
On April 17, Wright filed a libel lawsuit against McCormack, seeking damages of £100,000 (or roughly $130,000).
Craig Wright: McCormack and Buterin Defamed Me
Wright told Bloomberg he’s targeting Buterin and McCormack because they’re high-profile members of the crypto community, so what they say carries some authority.
“I am mainly seeking people who have a perceived authority within the cryptocurrency industry, so Vitalik and Peter McCormack. They have been sent the opening letter outlining the case already.”
“This will give me the chance to prove my credentials in front of a judge rather than being judged by Twitter.”
Wright: Mass Online Attacks Was the Breaking Point
Wright says he decided to file his lawsuits after being barraged on Twitter with nasty, personal attacks.
He says this was the breaking point because it really crossed the line. Wright has since deleted his Twitter account.
“I have said for a long time: ‘Challenge the science, not personalities.’ But that has been apparently impossible, so I’ve reluctantly had to take this step so that we can move on a ‘get back to the science,’ where I happily and openly debate ideas and concepts.”
Wright: Critics Fear Me Because I Expose Their Lies
Craig Wright first made the claims that he’s Satoshi in 2015 and has since repeated those assertions.
Wright says the industry’s hostility toward him is an attempt to silence him because he calls out bitcoin as a fraud and champions Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) as the one true bitcoin.
“This is a desire to silence me. They see an end to the scams, the pumps and lies…and they are afraid.”
“Anybody who reads the White Paper can see quite clearly that BSV is the only coin that reflects that paper and has proved it’s the only coin that can scale right now.”
Binance Delisted BSV This Week
Interestingly, Wright is not suing Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, even though he, too, called Wright “a fraud.”
Zhao followed up by delisting BSV from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange this week.
Bitcoin Cash Fork Spawned Warring Factions
As CCN.com reported, a crypto civil war erupted in November 2018 when Bitcoin Cash (BCH) underwent its contentious hard fork. The fork resulted in feuding camps:
- Bitcoin SV (Satoshi’s Vision): This group is backed by Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, the owner of CoinGeek.
- Bitcoin ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap): This camp adheres to the “official” Bitcoin Cash road map, which is supported by most node operators, and is endorsed by Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver and Jihan Wu, co-founder of mining giant Bitmain.
Calvin Ayre claims BSV is the “real bitcoin,” while the original cryptocurrency — which preceded Bitcoin SV — is an impostor. Craig Wright agrees.
“[BTC] is a sham bitcoin,” Wright has said. “BSV is what bitcoin was, and is the only way it works.”
**Update: Craig Wright claims bitcoin will crash to zero and get supplanted by Bitcoin SV.
