The Bitcoin white paper has made its way back to the Bitcoin.org website following Craig Wright’s unsuccessful attempt to prove his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin protocol.
Hennadii Stepanov, the maintainer of Bitcoin.org, announced the return of the white paper by sharing a link to the PDF on platform X.
Earlier, Bitcoin.org faced legal constraints that forced it to limit access to the white paper for users based in the United Kingdom.
Instead, a powerful quote from Satoshi Nakamoto adorned the site, emphasizing the nature of information as being easy to spread but hard to stifle.
bitcoin.pdf is back on Bitcoin Core’s domain 🧡 https://t.co/rGnLOXrSvc
— Norbert ⚡️ (@bitnorbert) May 23, 2024
Wright Won Copyright Infringement Case Against Cobra
In 2021, Craig Wright managed to win a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cobra, the anonymous group operating the website.
As a result, Bitcoin.org was compelled to remove the white paper PDF, and Cobra, opting not to mount a defense, had to pay £35,000 ($40,100) in legal fees.
Wright had previously filed for United States copyright registration for the Bitcoin white paper in 2019.
Taking his legal actions further, in 2023, Wright filed lawsuits against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and several companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, alleging copyright violations related to the white paper, its file format, and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund responded, highlighting the concerning trend of abusive lawsuits targeting prominent Bitcoin contributors.
These lawsuits not only introduce significant time, stress, and expenses but also pose legal risks that discourage open development.
However, Wright’s copyright victory has lost its significance as his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto and the author of the white paper have been thoroughly discredited, rendering his copyright claim invalid.
A detailed ruling came about as a
result of a case brought
against Wright by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a coalition of prominent companies aiming to prevent Wright from asserting ownership over Bitcoin’s core intellectual property.
COPA accused Wright of engaging in an elaborate scheme of forgery and deceit to fabricate evidence supporting his claim as Nakamoto.
Furthermore, a United Kingdom
court froze Craig Wright’s assets
worth £6.7 million ($8.4 million) to ensure he doesn’t evade the payment of court expenses.
With the Bitcoin white paper now falling under an MIT open-source license, it is freely available for anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose.
Nakamoto May be a Collective Entity
Meanwhile, a recent investigation provided evidence to suggest that
Nakamoto may actually be a collective entity
.
One piece of evidence is the usage of both “we” and “I” in the Bitcoin white paper, indicating the possibility of a team operating under a singular pseudonym.
Another piece of evidence comes from the linguistic analysis of Nakamoto’s writings.
The white paper showcases impeccable English with precise language and accurate usage of technical terms.
However, since Nakamoto’s writing style appears to be different in forums and email correspondences, this suggests multiple individuals were involved.