The United Kingdom Court of Appeal has rejected Craig Wright’s attempt to appeal a High Court ruling that declared he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.
Hodlonaut, a Bitcoin (BTC) influencer extensively covering Wright’s “Faketoshi” saga, took to X on Nov. 29 to report that Wright’s application for permission to appeal has been “brutally denied.”
According to the court, Wright provided false arguments for being Nakamoto, including those suspected to be created with artificial intelligence.
The latest court decision brings an end to the long-lasting saga of Wright’s multiple legal battles in his effort to prove that he created Bitcoin.
Wright’s “falsehoods” appear to be “AI-generated hallucinations”
In the latest ruling, the UK Court of Appeal suggested that Wright’s appeal grounds contained “multiple falsehoods,” including reliance upon some “fictitious authorities.”
The Court of Appeal’s order denying Craig Wright’s permission to appeal. Source: BitMEX Research
One example cited by the court was a case labeled Anderson v. the Queen [2013] UKPC 2, which the court said “appear to be AI-generated hallucinations.”
“It is not credible on its face, and even less so given the judge’s findings as to Dr. Wright’s credibility,” the court stated, adding, “The appeals have no prospect of success whatever, and there is no other reason to hear them.”
Eight years of “Faketoshi” saga
Born in 1970, Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman. Since at least 2016, Wright has claimed to be Nakamoto, openly asserting that he is the creator of Bitcoin.
The crypto community has questioned Wright’s claims, with some prominent figures like Hodlonaut calling him a “scammer” and a “fraud.” But Wright, or “Faketoshi,” as Wright is referred to on Bitcoin’s internet forums, didn’t stop there.
Over the years, he has filed a number of libel lawsuits against Hodlonaut, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Adam Back, podcaster Peter McCormack and many others. Many of these cases ended in losses or dismissals for Wright.
Craig Wright arrives at the Rolls Building of the High Court in London in February 2024. Source: Reuters
In May, Judge James Mellor of the UK High Court of Justice ruled that Wright was not Nakamoto. The ruling came in a case brought against Wright by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a coalition of firms that accused Wright of forgery to fabricate evidence backing his claim of being Nakamoto.
As Wright has been proven to not be the creator of Bitcoin, investigators and journalists around the world have been making efforts to deanonymize Nakamoto’s identity.
In October, an HBO documentary suggested that Canadian Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd was the secret creator of Bitcoin. While Todd himself subsequently said he wasn’t Nakamoto, many in the community were skeptical about the revelation.
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