Craig Wright has initiated a new lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers, according to an Oct. 15 filing submitted to the Chancery Division of the High Court in London.
Wright alleges that recent upgrades to Bitcoin’s (BTC) protocol have deviated from its original design and caused financial harm. He is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
BTC vs. BSV
The case centers on protocol modifications introduced through Taproot and Segregated Witness (SegWit), which Wright claims have misled the public into believing that Bitcoin maintains its original attributes.
According to Wright:
“These changes have caused confusion in the market and have compromised the vision of the original Bitcoin protocol.”
Wright is pursuing compensation based on the value difference between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), a digital asset he claims is the true continuation of Bitcoin.
As of Oct. 10, Bitcoin was trading at $62,000, while BSV stood at $65. Wright’s lawsuit seeks $1.18 billion in damages, arguing that Bitcoin Core’s upgrades have undermined his version of the flagship crypto.
Legal history
The latest lawsuit marks another chapter in Wright’s long history of legal disputes, many of which have centered on his controversial claim of being Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Despite previous rulings against him, Wright continues to pursue legal challenges, this time representing himself in court. His efforts to prove his claim as Satoshi have been met with skepticism, with multiple courts ruling against his assertions in recent years.
His previous court losses include one in 2022, where he was unable to cryptographically prove he holds the private keys associated with Bitcoin’s genesis block, a critical element in verifying Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity.
Another occurred in 2023 when a court ruled that he had no legitimate claim to the Bitcoin whitepaper, and the latest was earlier this year when a UK court ruled that he was not the Bitcoin creator and ordered him to stop pursuing further lawsuits related to his identity as Satoshi.