Behind the Bitcoin whitepaper saga: All you need to know

There has been a lot of buzz about Bitcoin’s whitepaper in the last 24 hours with self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, threatening to sue sites that fail to take down his whitepaper.

In his recent spree of legal actions, Wright, an Australian computer scientist threatened the owners of Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org. According to him, they stole his whitepaper and other intellectual property, and he wants them to remove the whitepaper from their sites.

But while the owner of Bitcoincore.org has decided to walk the path of peace and have quickly removed every reference to the Bitcoin whitepaper from its site, the owner of Bitcoin.org (aka Cobra) is ready for a legal battle. Cobra notes that he will not be intimidated by the threat of “false allegations.”

Cobra gave the details of Wright’s threats in an official blog post. He said:

Yesterday both Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org received allegations of copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper by lawyers representing Craig Steven Wright. In this letter, they claim Craig owns the copyright to the paper, the Bitcoin name, and ownership of bitcoin.org. They also claim he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, and the original owner of bitcoin.org. Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org were both asked to take down the whitepaper. We believe these claims are without merit, and refuse to do so.

Reacting to Bitcoincore’s surrender to the demands of Wright, Cobra said that the move was very bad for Bitcoin. He added:

By surrendering in this way, the Bitcoin Core project has lent ammunition to Bitcoin’s enemies, engaged in self-censorship, and compromised its integrity. This surrender will no doubt be weaponized to make new false claims, like that the Bitcoin Core developers ‘know’ CSW to be Satoshi Nakamoto and this is why they acted in this way.

The owner of Bitcoincore.org, Wladimir J. van der Laan, however, feels that the battle is not worth fighting for. Responding to his Twitter audience he affirmed that he is not ready to be a martyr for Bitcoin.

This is not the first time that Wright will be suing industry players. He has issued several lawsuits to various figures in the industry for refuting his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto. So, far, none of these cases have been settled in his favor.

So, who is Craig Wright?

As earlier stated, Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist. He shot into the limelight by claiming to be part of the team that created bitcoin, and the man behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. To a large extent, these claims have been widely disregarded and considered as a hoax.

In May 2019, he took his claims a step further by attempting to copyright the Bitcoin whitepaper. The computer scientist submitted a claim application with the U.S. Copyright Office requesting to be recognized as the original author and creator of Bitcoin and its whitepaper. He also wanted to be granted the copyright registration for developing a significant portion of the early versions of Bitcoin’s source code.

No Evidence of Being Satoshi Nakamoto

Despite his incessant claims of being Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi, Wright has been unable to provide any hard evidence. As per his application with the Copyright Office, the agency responded in a press release stating that all Wright did was to “confirm” that he is Satoshi without any actual proof. According to them, anyone could wake up and file a claim application. But filing a claim does not prove ownership.

As a general rule, when the Copyright Office receives an application for registration, the claimant certifies as to the truth of the statements made in the submitted materials. The Copyright Office does not investigate the truth of any statement made. It is possible for multiple, adverse claims to be registered at the Copyright Office… Disputes over the claims in a registration may be heard before federal courts, including disputes over authorship of a work.

In closing, Wright could prove that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto by signing a message with the private key of the first-ever Bitcoin block. Until that is done, no one would believe that Wright is genuine.

Craigh Wright may be the real Satoshi or at best a troll who simply wants to cash in on Bitcoin’s fame.

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