Fake Satoshi Craig Wright Drops Defamation Lawsuit In Norway

The fake Satoshi case of five years ago which involved Craig Wright and a Norwegian Bitcoiner has finally come to an end.

Origin of the Hodlonaut Case

An X post from the Norwegian bitcoiner, identified on X as “Hodlonaut” confirmed that Craig Wright has dropped his appeal against him after almost five years of pursuing the case. The self-acclaimed Bitcoin creator sued Hodlonaut on May 19, 2019, over some distasteful social media posts that included calling Wright a scammer and fraud for saying he created Bitcoin. 

Following a later trial in Oslo sometime in 2022, a Norwegian judge took sides with Hodlonaut. This was because he had “sufficient factual grounds to claim that Wright had lied and cheated in his attempt to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto,” as the court ruled at the time. This case was Hodlonaut’s way of preempting Craig from moving on with a defamation case on the same social media posts in the United Kingdom.

Hodlonaut was concerned about the laws in the UK that are heavily tipped in favor of the plaintiff, and monetary damages that could be massive. Rather than let the case rest at the time, Craig Wright appealed the court’s decision. Almost five years down the line and the self-acclaimed Bitcoin creator has finally backed down from the case without further fight.

“Just got off the phone with my Norwegian lawyer. CRAIG WRIGHT DROPPED THE APPEAL IN NORWAY!,” Hodlonaut wrote on X. “My win from 2022 is now final and enforceable. This case started May 19th, 2019 and lasted until today. I’m very happy! Now I just need to get the UK case dismissed/won and I can finally move on.”

COPA Secures Major Victory Over Craig Wright

Hodlonaut’s victory comes one month after Craig Wright received a court ruling against disavowing his claims over Bitcoin Whitepaper ownership. 

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) indicted Wright in 2021 to prove that he is not the creator of the popular BTC cryptocurrency. Ultimately, the plan was to prevent Wright from claiming copyright ownership to the Bitcoin whitepaper or suing Bitcoin developers or others under the guise of being Satoshi Nakamoto.

In March, Judge James Mellor finally ruled against the Australian computer scientist stating clearly that he was not the author of the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Fortunately, this ended the years-long speculations about whether Craig Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto or not. 

Despite dropping the defamation lawsuit appeal in Norway, there is still a pending defamation case against Hodlonaut in the U.K.