Has Craig Wright Finally Given Up His Campaign to Claim Bitcoin Was His Idea?

By Jason Nelson

In what may be the end of a decade-long odyssey, self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, Dr. Craig Wright, has dropped his lawsuit against 12 Bitcoin developers in the Tulip Trading Limited v. Bitcoin Association for BSV & Others case, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund said on Wednesday.

“Wright’s discontinuance of the Tulip Trading lawsuit means that Bitcoin developers are once again free to contribute to this world-changing network without the threat of litigation and harassment,” the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund said in a post.

“W” Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund backer Jack Dorsey tweeted, responding to the news.

The lawsuit stems from a claim by Wright that the Bitcoin developers refused to help him retrieve 111,000 BTC allegedly stolen in a hack that the nChain Chief Scientist claimed to own.

While Corallo declined to elaborate, the Bitcoin developer told Decrypt the case was like "asking for a fork of Bitcoin to seize random coins and give [Wright] free money."

"Thanks to the generous donors who propped up the millions of GBP this case [cost], in spite of its obvious nonsensical nature," Matt Corallo, who identified himself as one of 10 contributors to Bitcoin Core, said on Twitter. "All the folks who donated to [The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund] and [Jack Dorsey] and [Alex Morcos]for their specific support."

The news comes after UK High Court Judge James Mellor declared that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto and did not write the Bitcoin whitepaper, in March.

"I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper,” Mellor reportedly said. “Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. "

The declaration was followed later that month by a court order to freeze over $7.4 million in Wright’s assets to cover the legal fees of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and to protect against Wright “dissipating” his assets.

In January, before Wright's trial over his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto, Wright offered to settle the lawsuit with COPA out of court to avoid the legal proceedings and court fees.

“Wright’s discontinuance is an important victory for developers named in the Tulip Trading lawsuit and the entire Bitcoin community,” the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund said. “These developers have had to deal with years of Wright’s relentless legal harassment and intimidation, and the entire Bitcoin community suffers when these developers feel so threatened that they choose to stop contributing to the network.”

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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