- In March, the UK High Court ruled Craig Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto.
- Diehard Craig Wright supporters refuse to accept the court ruling.
- Speculation that Bitcoin is a psyop resurfaces.
In a major victory for Bitcoiners, the UK High Court definitively ruled in March that computer scientist Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The decision ended Wright’s years-long and contentious claim of being Satoshi. His aggressive pursuit of this claim led to mental and financial hardship for some of those who publicly challenged him.
Despite the weight of the evidence presented in court and Judge Mellor’s definitive ruling, a group of diehard Wright supporters have refused to accept the verdict and continue to cling to the notion that Wright is Satoshi.
Wright Supporters Cling to Satoshi Identity
Regardless of the court ruling, a group of hardcore supporters continue clinging to the belief that Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. In a recent tweet, X influencer Ryuushi criticized the court proceedings, saying Wright remains the most likely candidate for Satoshi given that the plaintiffs, COPA, did not submit “even one iota of evidence” of an alternative Satoshi candidate.
However, this line of reasoning misses the mark, as legal cases deal with well-defined causes of action. In this case, the question was whether Wright authored the Bitcoin whitepaper and held the associated intellectual property rights. The court’s task was not to uncover Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity but rather to determine Wright’s specific claims of ownership, which the judge ultimately rejected.
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Another diehard Wright supporter, Moon, went so far as to claim that the recent Bitcoin sell-off directly resulted from Wright, or “Satoshi,” selling his 1.1 million BTC holdings mined in the early development days in retaliation for the court’s ruling.
Bitcoin’s price has declined 11% since Friday, but analysts have attributed the sell-off to broader macro factors, such as tensions in the Middle East and fears of a potential WWIII outbreak, rather than Satoshi-era coins being sold off en masse.
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While Ryuushi’s reasoning missed the mark, his point still touched on the enduring mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto.
Is Bitcoin a Psyop?
The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has long been a subject of intense speculation within the cryptocurrency community. Although the UK High Court ruled out Wright, several other potential candidates remain.
Cryptographer Nick Szabo is repeatedly linked to being Satoshi due to the work he did on digital contracts and his concept of “bit gold,” which has been described as a direct precursor to Bitcoin’s architecture. Computer scientist Hal Finney is also often considered a likely candidate. Finney was around in the early days of BTC development and was the first to receive peer-to-peer transmitted Bitcoin.
However, there remain persistent theories that Bitcoin is the creation of three letter agencies, intending to draw in “useful idiots” who can see the writing on the wall about fiat currency and inflation but to keep the “idiots” locked into a controlled digital world.
Precious metal maximalist Peter Spina wondered whether crypto is the “biggest psyop,” one that prevents capital flows into real tangible assets, like gold, that can actually hurt the fiat proliferators and establishment.
Similarly, based on a traced IP address, Financelot claimed that Bitcoin and XRP/Ripple originated from an NSA data center in Arizona.
On the Flipside
- Ryan X. Charles has called on the community to show kindness to those who maintain that Wright is Satoshi.
- Psychologists call persistent beliefs, even in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, the “backfire effect.”
- Fifteen years after Bitcoin’s launch, there is no definitive evidence of Satoshi’s true identity.
Why This Matters
The persistent refusal of Craig Wright’s most ardent supporters to accept the court’s ruling highlights the pervasive power of misinformation and the challenges in correcting deeply entrenched beliefs.
Calls grow for class action lawsuit against Craig Wright over Satoshi-ruse. Read more here:
Craig Wright’s Troubles Stack as New Lawsuit Gathers Steam
The Bitcoin network hits 500 blocks to go halving milestone. Read more here:
Bitcoin Halving Now Only 500 Blocks Away: The Countdown Begins
