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  "map_content": "Title: IT expert convicted for repeatedly lying about inventing Bitcoin\n\nURL Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74x0j47gz8o\n\nPublished Time: 2024-12-19T16:47:12.411Z\n\nMarkdown Content:\n19 December 2024\n\nJoe Tidy Cyber correspondent, BBC World Service\n\n![Image 1: Getty Images Craig Wright, a white man in his fifties with short brown hair. He is wearing a sharp pinstripe suit with a striped tie and white shirt.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/bced/live/79e73280-be0a-11ef-97a7-0ff098912783.jpg.webp)Getty Images\n\nCraig Wright attending the London High Court in February 2024\n\nA computer scientist has been found to have committed contempt of court for falsely and persistently claiming to be the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.\n\nIn March, [the High Court ruled](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68567320) Craig Wright was not Satoshi, and ordered him to stop claiming he was.\n\nHowever, he continued to launch legal cases asserting he had intellectual property rights to Bitcoin, including a claim he was owed $1.2 trillion (\u00a3911 billion).\n\nA judge said that amounted to a \"flagrant breach\" of the original court order and sentenced him to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.\n\nIt means if Wright - who is from Australia but lives in the UK - continues to claim he invented the cryptocurrency he will face being jailed.\n\nHowever, Wright, who appeared via videolink, refused to disclose where he was, saying only he was in Asia.\n\nIt means an international arrest warrant would have to be issued if the UK authorities wanted to detain him.\n\nWright's actions were described in court as \"legal terrorism\" that \"put people through personal hell\" in his campaign to be recognised as Bitcoin's inventor.\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Mellor, said Wright arguments were \"legal nonsense\" but acknowledged that he was not in the UK and \"appears to be well aware of countries with which the UK does not have extradition arrangements\".\n\n'Lied extensively'\n------------------\n\nStarting in 2016, Wright [claimed to be the man](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36168863) behind the mysterious moniker Satoshi Nakamoto \u2013 generally known as Satoshi - the person who invented the world's first and largest cryptocurrency.\n\nAs the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi could be one of the richest people in the world.\n\nThe ballooning value of the cryptocurrency - which has [shot up](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ywp0l0xrxo) since Donald Trump was elected US president - means they would have an estimated $100bn (\u00a380bn) of Bitcoin in their digital wallets.\n\nHowever, Wright failed to provide concrete evidence for his claim, which was largely disregard by the cryptocurrency world.\n\nIn an attempt to assert he was Satoshi, he launched costly legal cases against people and companies that challenged him.\n\nHis actions prompted a coalition of industry companies - the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) - to force a high court trial this year to prevent him from carrying out any further legal cases.\n\nA judge ruled in their favour saying Wright had \"lied extensively\" to support his false claim.\n\nCopa lawyer Jonathan Hough said elements of Wright's conduct during the trial \"stray into farce\" - but he told the court it also had \"deadly serious\" consequences and created a \"chilling effect\" on the industry.\n\nWright is one of many people who have been identified either by themselves or others as Satoshi.\n\nHowever, all of those claims have [either been debunked or rejected](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c079zp2vy31o), meaning the search for the real creator of Bitcoin continues.",
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