Craig Wright: a madman or a professional barrator?

Hating on Wright is considered good manners in the crypto world. He has become the subject of countless mock comments and ridicule from all sides. In fact, he even surpasses Bitcoin evangelist Roger Ver in terms of the sheer volume of scorn directed his way. Moreover, Wright's numerous erratic actions have earned him the dubious distinction of being the primary source of controversy in the field, a position previously held by John McAfee.

This is largely due to the insane legal battles he has immersed himself in, in his quest to prove to the world that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. But what's even more surprising is that such negative attention doesn't seem to faze Wright. Perhaps he subscribes to the principle that “bad publicity is still publicity.”

Craig Wright's public record

These are a few proven facts about the self-proclaimed Satoshi.

• He was born in October 1970 in Australia, where he spent most of his life.
• Nowadays, he resides in the UK.
• He had a hand in the development of multiple cryptocurrencies (although we can only be 100% certain about his involvement with Bitcoin SV).”.
• He has extensive experience in the field of information technology and security.
• He claims to hold a doctorate degree in digital forensics.
• Claims to hold a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, a Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree, and a Master's degree in International Commercial Law.
• Married.
• He left Twitter and has abstained from using social media.

Craig Wright is notorious not only for his doctoral degrees but also for his legal battles of almost astronomical proportions.

What is known about the legal proceedings involving Craig Wright?

Wright's modus operandi is to challenge any court decision that does not favor him. He transforms even the smallest dispute into protracted litigation.

1. The oldest known court ruling against Wright dates back to August 31, 2004. He was found guilty of violating business competition regulations and contempt of court. He got 28 days' suspended sentence and 250 hours of community service. Wright appealed the decision, which took him a year and around $150,000 to do so.

2. “Wright was first accused of document forgery and perjury in July 2013. Known as Wright v. Kleiman, the case involved Wright seeking 50% ownership of the company W&K, which was owned 100% by Dave Kleiman. Wright also aimed to acquire control of the Bitcoins left by Dave after his death. The judge ordered Wright to pay $100 million to Kleiman's widow and over $43 million to W&K. It's worth noting that the legal battle continues to this day because Wright keeps filing one appeal after another. Judges have also recused themselves after 2-3 hearings due to Wright's behavior, and he still has not paid a cent of the judgment debt.”

The court's ruling for Wright to pay the awarded sum was made a year ago.

3. From 2017 to 2020, Craig Wright testified in a case involving his wife against Reliantco Investments Ltd. (Yes, you heard it right. Wright's wife also enjoys spending her free time in courtrooms.) The judge presiding over the case described the witness as follows:

Dr Wright gave evidence. He was an unsatisfactory witness in many respects. He was belligerent, argumentative and deliberately provocative. He evaded questions to which he did not want to give a straight answer.

4. “From January 2019 till August 2022, Craig was engaged in a legal battle with Bitcoin blogger Peter McCormack. Wright sued McCormack for calling him a fraud and mocking his attempts to pass himself off as Satoshi Nakamoto in one of his podcasts. He demanded $1.1 million from McCormack as moral compensation and reimbursement for the financial damage he suffered after being publicly exposed as a liar. Judge Martin Chamberlain concluded that McCormack failed to prove Wright's fraud during the hearing, and Wright failed to prove that he was the creator of the first cryptocurrency. In the end, the court ordered McCormack to pay £1 in moral compensation, but rejected Wright's demand to prohibit him from being called a fraud in the future. Nevertheless, McCormack admitted that the two years of legal proceedings had a significant impact on him and his family. His experience with Wright was so negative that he prefers to forget about him.

5. At present, the legal battle with Hodlonaut, who, like McCormack, dared to doubt that our hero is Satoshi Nakamoto, is still ongoing. (You can learn more about the details of this process from our interview with Hodlonaut).

6. And, not one to shy away from a fight, Wright immediately filed lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase CEOs, who supported Hodlonaut (it's unclear what will happen with these).

Moreover, it makes sense to ask: is Mr. Craig a querulant* and does he need the help of a psychiatrist?”

We might agree with this perspective if not for one small fact: in all cases, the legal expenses are funded by a close friend and partner of Wright – billionaire Calvin Ayre. The self-proclaimed Satoshi is unable to pay such enormous sums on a regular basis. After all, the success of his ‘true Bitcoin' project – BSV – is highly doubtful.

What is the true motivation behind these toxic manipulations? Could it lie in gaining control over Satoshi's wallet?

A ‘querulant' is a person who is fixated on an imaginary problem and aggressively defends their interests by filing complaints with official institutions. Querulantism is characteristic of psychopathic personalities with a paranoid disposition.

Craig Wright Quotes

Well, I know that if you think life is a vending machine, where you put in virtue and you get happiness, then you're probably gonna be disappointed. I know that

There’s a lot of misinformation from BTC maximalists that want to go back to drug markets, porn … I want it known that these lies, these slanderous accusations about how law enforcement can’t take bitcoin from criminals are wrong… The whole point I’m trying to make, and that I’m going to make, is that Bitcoin is not encrypted.

I have about 8 billion dollars’ worth of bitcoin and I’m donating them. Not as a joke. I’m giving them away. So my BTC are not going to go to me. I’ll keep my bitcoin — the bitcoin I created, the bitcoin I still work on