Bitcoin White Paper Returns to Bitcoin.org After Craig Wright Fails to Prove He is Nakamoto
Ruholamin Haqshanas
May 27, 2024 01:44 EDT
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2 min read
The Bitcoin white paper has made its way back to the Bitcoin.org website following Craig Wright’s unsuccessful attempt to prove his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin protocol.
Hennadii Stepanov, the maintainer of Bitcoin.org, made an announcement about the white paper’s return by sharing a link to the PDF on platform X.
Previously, Bitcoin.org had faced legal restrictions that limited access to the white paper for users in the United Kingdom. In its place, a powerful quote from Satoshi Nakamoto was displayed on the site, emphasizing the ease of spreading information and its resistance to suppression.
Wright’s Copyright Infringement Case Against Cobra
In 2021, Craig Wright successfully won a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cobra, the anonymous group running the website. As a result, Bitcoin.org was forced to remove the white paper PDF, and Cobra, choosing not to defend themselves, had to pay £35,000 ($40,100) in legal fees.
In 2019, Wright had previously filed for United States copyright registration for the Bitcoin white paper. Taking his legal actions further, in 2023, he filed lawsuits against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and several companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, alleging copyright violations related to the white paper, its file format, and the database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund voiced concerns over these lawsuits, highlighting the trend of abusive litigation targeting prominent Bitcoin contributors. These legal actions not only cause significant time, stress, and expenses, but also create legal risks that discourage open development.
However, Wright’s copyright victory lost its significance as his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto and the author of the white paper were thoroughly discredited, rendering his copyright claim invalid. A detailed ruling was made in a case filed against Wright by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a coalition of prominent companies aiming to prevent Wright from asserting ownership over Bitcoin’s core intellectual property. COPA accused Wright of engaging in an elaborate scheme of forgery and deceit to fabricate evidence supporting his claim as Nakamoto.
Additionally, a United Kingdom court has frozen Craig Wright’s assets worth £6.7 million ($8.4 million) to ensure he cannot evade the payment of court expenses.
With the Bitcoin white paper now falling under an MIT open-source license, it is freely available for anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose.
Nakamoto May be a Collective Entity
Meanwhile, a recent investigation has provided evidence suggesting that Nakamoto may actually be a collective entity. One piece of evidence is the usage of both “we” and “I” in the Bitcoin white paper, indicating the possibility of a team operating under a singular pseudonym. Another piece of evidence comes from linguistic analysis of Nakamoto’s writings. The white paper demonstrates impeccable English with precise language and accurate usage of technical terms. However, Nakamoto’s writing style appears to be different in forums and email correspondences, suggesting the involvement of multiple individuals.
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