“We are thrilled to see Craig Wright recognized as author of the landmark Bitcoin white paper and early code. Better than anyone else, Craig understands that Bitcoin was created be a massively scaled blockchain to power the world’s electronic cash for billions of people to use, and be the global data ledger for the biggest enterprise applications.” -Jimmy Nguyen, founder of nChain, the blockchain company where Wright is Chief Scientist.
The Australian tech entrepreneur, Craig Wright has earlier laid claims of being the anonymous creator of the digital currency, Bitcoin (BTC). Early in May, just a week after he openly claimed to be the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, he posted on his blog saying, “I believed that I could do this. I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me, but as the events of this week unfolded, and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.” Reasons why he suddenly got cold feet on his claim are still unknown, but crypto experts have taken it as a confirmation that it was false. Although he made no statement of his earlier claims being false, according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that Craig had filed copyright registrations for the Bitcoin whitepaper and the first Bitcoin codes with the US Copyright Office in Texas, according to CCN. This move is considered huge regarding his claim to being the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.
What Cryptocurrency Experts Are Saying
Although he complied with the US Court’s request to provide a list of Bitcoin addresses associated with the Tulip Trust, most Crypto experts outside the US government do not agree with the claim being valid.
CoinCenter’s executive director, Jerry Brito, took to his Twitter handle with a post from which an inference can be drawn that filing for copyright is no significant claim of the Crypto giant.
https://twitter.com/jerrybrito/status/1130812389048238080
California-based lawyer, Chris Harvey in response to Jerry’s post, wrote that no company in history has ever been prosecuted for wrongfully filing copyrights which he pointed out as “copyfraud.”
False copyright registration is "copyfraud". Unfortunately, no private right of action exists under relevant US copyright law, 18 U.S.C. ยงย 506(e). Violations are punishable by a fine of up to $2,500. No company has ever been prosecuted for violating this. https://t.co/SgwKgbQm2L
— Chris Harvey (@ChrisHarveyEsq) May 21, 2019
As reported by CCN, copyright on a property like a digital property does not prove its legitimacy, but most owners of intellectual properties file them to ensure the security of their properties. Thus, this means that Craig’s legal right to the Bitcoin open source code does not make his claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto acceptable, as interpreted by Jerry Brito.
What is the Future of Bitcoin?
Last week Thursday, Investing.com reported that Bitcoin (BTC) was back from the dead when the cryptocurrency price surged above $8,000.
With this current claim of ownership by Craig, what effect could we expect on the price of Bitcoin? Could this be the beginning of the end or the start of a new disrupting era?
Although the price of Bitcoin has dropped to $8,000 at the wake of this news, there is no significant analysis of the long-term effect of this news on the cryptocurrency. Nonetheless, the price of Bitcoin SV (BSV), which Craig is the founder, suddenly rose by over 200% to a 24-hour high of $195 as quoted in the Huobi, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange.
Well, Craig has said that he intends to hand the copyright registrations over to the Bitcoin Association in the near future as reported by CoinGeek.
This whole move raises a question. Is the decentralized digital economy about to take a U-turn of becoming centralized and controlled by a body?
