Regulation
Craig Wright Is Not Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto, Court Rules
“Craig Wright’s feeling is that it was never enough,” van Pelt said.
Even after Dr. Wright failed to produce evidence, he maintained a band of loyal followers online. He did not have access to Satoshi’s private keys, he claimed in court, because he had destroyed a hard drive containing them; He described it as an impulsive decision, partly related to his autism.
Mr Ayre stood by him and in 2018 he and Dr Wright launched Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, which trades at around $70 per coin, a small fraction of the price of Bitcoin. Dr. Wright oversaw its development from the offices of nChain, a company that Mr. Ayre financed as a vehicle to convert his partner’s ideas about cryptocurrencies into a patent portfolio.
At nChain, Dr. Wright was a difficult boss, prone to yelling, four people who worked with him said. He liked to show off his wealth, to brag who had more money than the entire country of Rwanda. nChain employees attended extravagant parties in London: At one memorable event, hosted by Mr. Ayre, guests ate sushi on the bodies of naked women, while performers in samurai costumes wandered nearby, two of the people said.
Rejected by much of the cryptocurrency industry, Dr. Wright took his Satoshi-dom claim to court, pursuing litigation that Mr. Ayre helped fund. In 2022, his defamation battle reached Norway, where Magnus Granath, the little-known Bitcoin enthusiast who had accused him of fraud on social media, won a ruling against him. That year, Dr. Wright also sued the Bitcoin programmers, claiming copyright infringement.
“He appears to have enough money and the support of others that he can carry out his threats to ruin people financially by initiating expensive litigation,” said Steve Lee, a manager at Block, a company Mr. Dorsey co-founded after Twitter . in a court filing last year.