Self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor allowed to file copyright claim on cryptocurrency's whitepaper

(Image credit: Pixabay, MichaelWuensch)

London's High Court has given the go-ahead for Craig Steven Wright to pursue a copyright infringement lawsuit against the publisher of the bitcoin.org website. Wright is claiming that he is the original writer of the bitcoin white paper that is held on the site in question, which outlines the technology of the cryptocurrency.

The white paper was written back in 2008 and is called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. It is authored under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity has long been a topic for debate. Craig Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but this is debated.

The paper itself can be found on bitcoin.org, which is why Wright is pursuing the case against the owners of the site, although who actually runs bitcoin.org isn't known, beyond being known as "Cobra".

Cobra responded to a letter from Wright's lawyers on Twitter back in January, along with a post on bitcoin.org stating Satoshi Nakamoto has a known PGP public key, and that if Wright wants to prove he is the other, then he can use this to do it.

As the high court has allowed Wright to pursue the claim, it's now down to Cobra to reveal their identity in order to defend the claim, otherwise, the claim could default in Wright's favour.

The price of bitcoin has surged to new heights this year, peaking at $63,000.

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Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.