Craig Wright, Bitcoin SV backer and self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, has had another court case dismissed.
Back in April 2019, Wright sued a pseudonymous Bitcoin (BTC) proponent, known as Hodlonaut, for defamation. He claimed the user, known only by his distinctive "cat in a spacesuit" Twitter photo, damaged his reputation by calling him a scammer.
Wright then put out a $5,000 bounty for the pseudonymous Bitcoiner's personal information, which resulted in Hodlonaut's details being publically posted online—a process known as doxxing. It is unknown if the bounty was paid.
According to a tweet posted by Hodlonaut, and court documents provided to Decrypt, this court case has been dismissed. "UK High Court handed down judgment today in the defamation case [Wright] filed against me. The Judge ruled UK does not have jurisdiction, and the proceedings against me there to be dismissed," Hodlonaut wrote.
He added that the case will have jurisdiction in Norway. In June last year, he tweeted that he had issued proceedings against Wright in Norway.
UK High Court handed down judgment today in the defamation case CSW filed against me. The Judge ruled UK does not have jurisdiction, and the proceedings against me there to be dismissed.
Norway has jurisdiction. We will go to court there to put an end to this mess.
Wright asserts that he is Satoshi NakamotoSatoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. Many in the crypto community dispute this, asking for proof in the form of the private keys necessary to move bitcoin that Satoshi mined in Bitcoin's early days. As a result, Wright launched the aforementioned lawsuits to protect his claim to be Satoshi.
According to the court documents, the lawsuit is based on a specific tweet, which Hodlonaut posted on March 17, 2019. It reads, "The forensics to CSW's first attempt to fraudulently 'prove' he is Satoshi. Enabled by @gavinandresen. Never forget. @CraigWrightIsAFraud."
Hodlonaut pushed for the court to not exercise its jurisdiction in the proceedings and to have the whole case dismissed. Mr Justice Jay obliged to both requests.
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This is not the first time that Wright has sued for defamation in court only to see it thrown out. In May 2019, he also sued Bitcoin.com founder and Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver for calling him a fraud. This case was similarly dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
1. CSW v Hodlonaut (CSW lost) 2. CSW v Kleiman (CSW loses, currently appealing) 3. CSW v Roger Dodger (CSW loses, currently appealing) 4. CSW v McCormick (TBD)
Wright is also suing podcaster Peter McCormack. However, unlike the others (assuming Hodlonaut is based in Norway), McCormack actually lives in the UK.
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright’s defamation case against Bitcoin Cash advocate Roger Ver has been thrown out by a UK court on the grounds that it is “weak” and “inappropriate.”
Wright delivered a legal notice to Ver when he was briefly in the UK earlier this year, claiming a video Ver made describing Wright as a “fraud” was damaging to his reputation.
But High Court Judge Sir Matthew Nicklin said there was scant evidence of the alleged harm done to Wright’s reputation, saying...
Adding a twist to the tale, this claim has opened Wright himself up to a lawsuit. Since he says he is Satoshi, he is being sued by the estate of Dave Kleiman for half of the bitcoin he claims he mined in the early days. The claim is that both Kleiman and Wright mined the coins together and, therefore, should split the profits—which would now go to Kleiman's estate, since he passed away in 2013. On Tuesday, Wright revealed a list of 16,404 addresses that he claims to own—but says he doesn't yet know how to access them.
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