Behind the Bitcoin whitepaper saga: All you need to know

BTC Peers

Published Jan 22, 2021 07:43AM ET

Updated Jan 22, 2021 08:00AM ET

Behind the Bitcoin whitepaper saga: All you need to know

There has been a lot of buzz about Bitcoin’s whitepaper in the last 24 hours with self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, threatening to sue sites that fail to take down his whitepaper.

In his recent spree of legal actions, Wright, an Australian computer scientist threatened the owners of Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org. According to him, they stole his whitepaper and other intellectual property, and he wants them to remove the whitepaper from their sites.

But while the owner of Bitcoincore.org has decided to walk the path of peace and have quickly removed every reference to the Bitcoin whitepaper from its site, the owner of Bitcoin.org (aka Cobra) is ready for a legal battle. Cobra notes that he will not be intimidated by the threat of “false allegations.”

Cobra gave the details of Wright’s threats in an official blog post. He said:

Yesterday both Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org received allegations of copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper by lawyers representing Craig Steven Wright. In this letter, they claim Craig owns the copyright to the paper, the Bitcoin name, and ownership of bitcoin.org. They also claim he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, and the original owner of bitcoin.org. Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org were both asked to take down the whitepaper. We believe these claims are without merit, and refuse to do so.
Reacting to Bitcoincore’s surrender to the demands of Wright, Cobra said that the move was very bad for Bitcoin. He added:

By surrendering in this way, the Bitcoin Core project has lent ammunition to Bitcoin’s enemies, engaged in self-censorship, and compromised its integrity. This surrender will no doubt be weaponized to make new false claims, like that the Bitcoin Core developers ‘know’ CSW to be Satoshi Nakamoto and this is why they acted in this way.
The owner of Bitcoincore.org, Wladimir J. van der Laan, however, feels that the battle is not worth fighting for. Responding to his Twitter audience he affirmed that he is not ready to be a martyr for Bitcoin.

In closing, Wright could prove that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto by signing a message with the private key of the first-ever Bitcoin block. Until that is done, no one would believe that Wright is genuine.

Craigh Wright may be the real Satoshi or at best a troll who simply wants to cash in on Bitcoin’s fame.

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