Craig Wright sentenced to 1 year for contempt in Satoshi claims

Craig Wright, who claimed for years to be the creator of Bitcoin, was found guilty of defamation and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright was sentenced to 12 months in prison and his sentence suspended for 24 months after a judge in England found him guilty of contempt of court.

In March, a court ruled that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC). The decision follows Wright’s £900bn intellectual property claim, in which he claimed copyright ownership of the Bitcoin whitepaper and keycode databases.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance responded by suing Wright in the UK to put an end to his claims of being Satoshi. Prominent figures in the Bitcoin community, including Adam Back, designer of the proof-of-work consensus model, testified against Wright during the trial.

COPA won the case, and Wright was declared “Not Satoshi” in court, ultimately committing contempt of court during his legal bid to assume Nakamoto’s identity.

According to the Guardian, Wright refused to reveal his physical location during his prison sentence. He attended via a virtual meeting app and stated that he would appeal the court’s decision.