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Craig Wright Claims He’s Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Can He Prove It in Court?


A judge will determine whether computer scientist Craig Wright is the inventor of bitcoin. The network's future may hang in the balance.

In their 2008 white paper, released in the shadow of a global financial meltdown, Nakamoto sketched a vision for a new electronic money and peer-to-peer payment system that would obviate the need for troublesome intermediaries like banks. In the absence of a patent, claims Lindsay Gledhill, IP partner at law firm Harper James, Wright’s strategy seems to be to use legal action to “cobble together a basket of rights” that perform a similar function when taken together. If he wins, though, Wright could make it harder for developers to collaborate freely on the Bitcoin codebase—to spoil the unspoiled anarchy—by wielding the affirmation of his IP rights to file lawsuits against those that do not seek a license.

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