Who Really Invented Bitcoin? The Question Now Comes Before UK Court

Bitcoin’s (BTC) self-proclaimed inventor Craig Wright has been allowed by a UK court to serve a copy infringement lawsuit against ‘Cobra’, the pseudonymous operator and publisher of the bitcoin.org website, Reuters reported Thursday.

What Happened: Wright, an Australian computer scientist residing in Britain, claims to have created Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Wright says he owns the copyright to the Bitcoin white paper that he authored and first released in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

London’s High Court has allowed Wright to serve the lawsuit via generic email or Twitter. Cobra might be resident abroad and has not disclosed a name, identity or address, according to the Reuters report.

Wright has reportedly accused Cobra of wrongfully controlling the bitcoin.org website and demanded they remove the white paper from their website, The Bitcoin whitepaper is the document that first outlined the technology behind the cryptocurrency.

However, Bitcoin.org said it is not based in the UK and Craig’s copyright claims over the whitepaper can be verified to be false, as per the report.

See Also: Dogecoin Creator Says Meme Coin's Development Has Kept Pace With Bitcoin

Why It Matters: Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is the world’s biggest digital currency and is growing in adoption.

The apex cryptocurrency touched a never-before-seen level of $64,863.10 on April 14 this year amid the renewed excitement surrounding cryptocurrencies that has been partly fueled by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. COIN making its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange recently.

However, Bitcoin is down about 6.5% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $50,042.97 at press time.

Wright has long proclaimed himself to be "Satoshi Nakamoto," the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin. The claim hasn't found footing with the cryptocurrency community. When Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org received copyright infringement allegations from Wright's lawyers in January, Bitcoin-centric companies ranging from Square Inc SQ to Facebook Inc. FB-backed Novi began hosting the apex cryptocurrency's white paper on their platforms in a show of support for the non-profit organizations.

See Also: Dogecoin Falls Below 20 Cents, Bitcoin Below $50K Amid Wide Sell-Off, But These Two Cryptos Are On A Run Today

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: CryptocurrencyNewsLegalMarketsBitcoinBlockchainCraig WrightSatoshi Nakamoto
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!