A British court has taken action to safeguard £6 million ($7.6 million) of Craig Wright's assets, aiming to prevent him from circumventing court costs amid allegations of being Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The decision follows revelations that Wright had transferred some of his assets outside the UK, coupled with a court ruling that refuted his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto. In response, Wright purportedly moved shares in his London-based firm, RCJBR Holding, to an entity in Singapore on March 18, according to documents from the British court. Judge James Mellor underscored the significance of this action in the filing, expressing concerns about Wright's potential attempts to evade the financial repercussions of a trial loss.
In a victory for the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), the court granted a "global freezing order" aimed at addressing COPA’s court costs totaling $8,471,225 (£6,703,747.91). Established in 2020, COPA's mission centers on promoting cryptocurrency technology adoption and innovation by eliminating patents as an obstacle to progress. Its membership comprises 33 prominent entities, including Coinbase, Block, Meta, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Paradigm, Uniswap, and Worldcoin.
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, had previously laid claim to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, leveraging it to assert copyright over the Bitcoin network. However, a pivotal court ruling on March 14, based on the testimonies of early Bitcoin developers like Martti Malmi, definitively refuted Wright's assertions of being Satoshi Nakamoto.
In response to Wright's copyright claims, COPA initiated legal action against him in April 2021, challenging his alleged ownership of Bitcoin's copyright. Subsequently, in 2023, Wright initiated lawsuits against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and several companies, alleging infringement of the Bitcoin white paper and other intellectual property rights.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund has since addressed these lawsuits, emphasizing the detrimental impact of such litigious actions on Bitcoin's development and the individuals involved. Wright's attempts to assert copyright over the Bitcoin white paper have been thwarted by the MIT Open Source License, which now governs its use, allowing for unrestricted modification and redistribution. The court order effectively bars Wright from pursuing further copyright claims related to the Bitcoin white paper.
