Craig Wright Signals He's Given Up Convincing Courts He Invented Bitcoin

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright may be ratcheting down a multi-year effort to convince courts that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

Wright first caused an uproar in the Bitcoin community with a 2016 blog post in which he claimed – with questionable evidence – to be Bitcoin’s inventor. He’s since gone to court defending his claim, filing lawsuits containing accusations ranging from libel (where he sued Magnus Granath, also known as “Hodlonaut,” for calling him a fraud) to copyright infringement (where Wright successfully petitioned courts to have the Bitcoin white paper removed from bitcoin.org).

After six years in the spotlight, Wright seemed to suggest via Twitter on Wednesday that he would finally put his Satoshi court crusade to rest.

“I have been too angry for too long, as I cared for external validation. That ends,” he tweeted.

“I no longer care what you think. I care for my wife, my mother, and my family,” Wright said. “The only validation I seek now is from my family. The rest is no longer important.”

Wright’s tweet thread followed the latest in a series of blows to his Bitcoin inventor claim, which he has thus far struggled to back up with concrete proof in the eyes of courts and much of the public. Just before Wright’s tweets, a judge unequivocally stated that “[i]t is important to be clear that Dr. Wright has not established that he is Satoshi” in the final judgment in a defamation case between Wright and podcast personality Peter McCormack.

Although Wright may indeed take a break from litigation, it doesn’t seem he’ll be backing away from his claim to be Satoshi anytime soon. “Creator of Bitcoin” is still proudly displayed on his Twitter profile and website.

Per one of Wright’s tweets on Wednesday, “My vision is my goal, and I will never stop working to achieve it.”

Read more: Craig Wright’s Satoshi Proofs ‘Not Credible’ and a ‘Farce,’ Hodlonaut Lawyers Say

CORRECTION (Dec. 23, 2022 15:02 UTC): Corrected Granath's alias in second paragraph.