There are two things that many people in this world want to discover: First, what One Piece is. Two, the creator of Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto. Of course, we’ll discover the first thing quicker than the second, because that’s the way things are: whoever was behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto has never been revealed. Or if? No, probably not, but one person has been trying to prove for years that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

This is Craig Wright’s story.

The year was 2016. We’ve all used the “let’s calm down” meme, the streets were filled with trainers playing ‘Pokémon GO’, the best thing was the bottle challenge, and Hodor broke our hearts after his death. It was also the year that Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright admitted that he was Satoshi Nakamoto (although the first information dates back to 2015). Not nearly as spectacular as finding a Charizad while walking down the street.

Tests. At the time, Wright provided a series of tests, such as messages signed using cryptographic keys created in the early days of Bitcoin. According to The Australian, they were used to “send 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney in his first bitcoin transaction in January 2009.” Finney was one of the engineers who helped create the cryptocurrency. In each case there were doubts. According to many experts, this was not enough.

extraordinary tests. That’s what Wright promised, when he posted a message that included a cryptographic key belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto (which may have been reused from an old transaction Satoshi made in 2009). He assured that he would release “independently verifiable documents” and evidence that would “address false accusations.” Instead, he deleted his blog and left a letter titled “I’m Sorry”; In this letter, he actually said that he could not handle the pressure and would not provide further evidence. Now that letter does not exist.

In fact, proving that he is Satoshi Nakamoto would be as easy as signing any message using Bitcoin’s creator’s original private PGP key. If you can, why not use this and solve the problem? “I’m not going to keep jumping through hoops,” he told The Economist when asked for more evidence. That or move Bitcoin from the original account to another wallet.

The thing is, as he said in 2022, this wouldn’t be possible because Satoshi “mined the hard disk” containing the keys necessary to gain access to Nakamoto’s private keys. It’s a shame, of course, because on January 5th, for some reason, someone deposited $1.17 million into the Genesis account.

First page of the Bitcoin Whitepaper | Capture: Xataka

Technical Review Record. In April 2019, Wright registered the Bitcoin White Paper (published by Satoshi Nakamoto) and the Bitcoin 0.1 code with the USCO (United States Copyright Office) in an attempt to claim the intellectual property rights of Bitcoin. According to his team, this record was “the first time Craig Wright was recognized by a government agency as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.”

Shortly thereafter, the USCO issued a statement stating that “the Copyright Office has not investigated whether there is a provable connection between the complainant and the pseudonymous author.” But that’s the way it is: he had managed to save the file.

2019 was also a year full of insult complaints. Wright did not hesitate to sue anyone who accused him of being a liar and a fraud. Among them is Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum (100% real, not fake). He also sued the well-known Norwegian crypto influencer Hodlonaut and won the case. She also sued podcaster Peter McCormack, but eventually backed down.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Wright filed a lawsuit against two popular crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Kraken, and some developers for violating his copyright by using the term “Bitcoin” and damaging the reputation of BSV (Bitcoin Satoshi Vision), a cryptocurrency for which Wright himself is . He created it in 2018 with the premise that it would be the closest design to Satoshi Nakamoto’s original design.

Image: Kanchanara

CUP is coming. Faced with this situation, COPA (Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance), an organization supported by Jack Dorsey and bringing together the main agencies of the industry, filed a lawsuit against Wright in the United Kingdom in February 2021. The aim was to prevent Wright from continuing to make a claim. Copyright of Bitcoin whitepaper and code. The case came to court on February 5, and the result became clear: According to the UK court, this person is not Satoshi Nakamoto.

COPA accused Wright of manipulating and falsifying evidence on an “industrial level”, including some Word documents altered to change dates; forged handwritten documents; Copies of the Bitcoin whitepaper modified to resemble drafts (with metadata and sources that did not exist until 2017) and even a fake hard drive containing evidence of the work he discovered by chance, which led to the publication of the White Paper. The study in question contains content made with ChatGPT according to COPA. Wright, of course, rejected the major.

Decision: no. After a hearing that lasted nearly five weeks, London High Court Judge James Mellor ruled that Craig Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto and ordered £6 million to be frozen to prevent Wright from paying legal costs. His own words regarding identity were as follows:

“[…] After reviewing all the evidence and arguments presented to me in this case, I have concluded that the evidence is overwhelming. Therefore, for the reasons that will be explained in the written decision at that time, I will make some statements that seem useful and necessary to ensure justice between the parties:

First of all, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.

Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” during the period from 2008 to 2011.

Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system.

And fourth, he is not the author of the early versions of the Bitcoin software.”

Sentence. As the judge explained in the decision published on May 20, Wright lied “extensively and repeatedly” and falsified documents “on a massive scale” to support his false statement. “Dr. Wright presents himself as an extremely intelligent person. However, in my view, he is not as much as he thinks he is.” “He’s not smart,” he says, and concludes: “All his lies and forged documents supported his biggest lie: the claim that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.”

Wright said he would appeal. As for the other cases, they were criminal-related.

The mystery continues. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? It’s unknown, and we’ll probably never know, but maybe 40 years later, someone confesses to it on their deathbed and the news spreads around the world, a streaming platform releases a series, books sell, merchandising, etc. It is a typical situation. .

The same thing will definitely happen in One Piece.

Pictures | craigwright.net | kanchanara

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