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The Fall of Faketoshi: A Deep Dive into the Satoshi Imposter's Downfall

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Craig Wright with statement saying he isn't Satoshi

When a fraud like Bernie Madoff is taken down, the world rejoices. Now is that time for Craig Wright, an Australian con artist who has been pretending to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, for nearly a decade. Through his failed attempts to fraudulently steal Satoshi's intellectual property, Craig Wright will be remembered as one of the most notorious financial criminals in history.

On May 20, 2024, COPA delivered a massive defeat to Craig Wright in English civil court, officially confirming in legal writing that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto. This comes after Wright falsely claimed he was the real Satoshi, and COPA argued that Wright illegally claimed Satoshi's identity in a bid to coerce Bitcoin developers to change the code.

The much anticipated judgment from Judge Mellor has now been released, and today I will analyze the end of Craig Wright's quest for Bitcoin power and what his future looks like.

The writing was on the wall

It was no surprise to anyone (except BSVers) that Faketoshi lost the case against COPA. In fact, it was over before it started. For years, it has been public knowledge that Wright forged every piece of "Satoshi evidence" that he pushed out, which investigative journalist Arthur van Pelt has brilliantly displayed.

My personal favorite is when Wright claimed he had a powerful supercomputer used to perform computer science research, which in reality was a scam to hoodwink the Australian government out of tax credits. He used this story as a way to bolster his fake persona of "genius Australian computer scientist who created Bitcoin."

Of course, this supercomputer never existed in the first place. After the Australian tax authorities caught wind of this and raided his home, Wright fled the country and moved to England, where he helped further the Bitcoin knockoff, BSV, in his role as Faketoshi.

While cosplaying as the inventor of Bitcoin, Wright has demonstrated a hilarious level of ignorance in relation to anything Satoshi wrote. This was shown by anonymous accounts tricking him with Satoshi's own quotes. During one of the exchanges, Wright also demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of SSL or TLS, which are protocols that any real computer scientist, no less Satoshi, would be able to grasp.

Wright showing he doesn't understand SSL and TLS

It is simply mind-boggling how BSVers didn't see Wright for the obvious fraud that he is over the course of nearly a decade.

Judge Mellor's ruling against Faketoshi

Wright's complete inability to put forward a piece of non-forged evidence for his claims resulted in several harsh statements by Judge Mellor, such as below.

"Ultimately, I consider it is likely that the real Satoshi would never have set out to prove in litigation that he actually was Satoshi and certainly not in the way that Dr Wright attempted to do so."

Mellor's statement shows that in Wright's sheer desperation to use the court system to go after innocent opponents like the Bitcoin core developers, he completely forgot how the real Satoshi would operate. To make matters worse, Martti Malmi and Adam Back's Satoshi email dump further showcased Wright's horrendous lies.

Additionally, Judge Mellor strongly stated:

"The case that Dr Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto is overwhelming.."

This decisive judgment puts a nail in the coffin for Wright ever pretending to be the inventor of Bitcoin again. In fact, Wright's egregious acts of fraud even caused Judge Mellor to refer Wright for criminal prosecution.

Craig Wright admitting he is not Satoshi

The humiliating defeat resulted in Wright having to post on his own website and social media accounts that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto.

He fled England out of fear

At the first hint of a future criminal prosecution, Mr. Wright fled England, showing how his mind is driven by fear of repercussion for his many transgressions.

He is in rough shape and appears to have fled to Thailand, a popular safe haven for international criminals. Neither are a surprise since he has a history of drinking and committed fraud by impersonating Satoshi and using the title for personal gain.

While fleeing was probably the safest course of action, it also demonstrates a level of guilt, which UK prosecutors could pounce on if they got the chance to extradite him back to the country.

Wright appears to be in dire straits financially

Craig Wright has virtually no opportunities to get a reputable job or even expand his fan base at this point due to his extremely poor choices. With his ability to put out Satoshi fraud now halted, Wright is relegated to posting long essays on X via the use of AI to convince his remaining cult supporters not to leave.

At this point, his only hope for any form of survival seems to be using AI to throw together essays that make him look semi-competent, leading to cultist podcast invites and possible advisory work in what's left of BSV.

Wright is a maniac

Looking at the activity of Craig Wright over the last decade, it appears that he is often depicted as an angry and dishonest person. An example of this type of behavior is when he ranted about Greg Maxwell, the former CTO of Blockstream and architect of Taproot.

Craig Wright attacking Greg Maxwell

Despite Maxwell never committing any crimes (quite the opposite), Wright insisted that Maxwell should be put in prison for debunking his fake Satoshi claims. The most humiliating part about Wright's unhinged rant is that he is describing himself. "False and unjustified claims" come second nature to Wright, since he has masqueraded as the inventor of Bitcoin for nearly a decade.

This abhorrent behavior has led to his audience acting in the same reprehensible way.

His mental state can perhaps best be shown by his deranged attacks on Shoosmiths, the UK law firm that represented him during the COPA trial.

He is a hopeless individual

Given that Wright is now living in a low-cost environment in Thailand, I have no doubt that he will be able to scrape by in a shed or a maybe even a small apartment for a while. Despite this, I am convinced that Wright is a hopeless individual. By that, I mean he appears to be so mentally tortured by his own web of lies to the point where he may be losing his sanity as time passes.

There was an alternative future for him since, at any point in time, he could have swallowed his pride and admitted wrongdoing. I think it's likely he would have been better off in the long term had he shown the basic human trait of empathy.

Now, even many of his former cult friends do not want to associate themselves with him. Wright's very name is essentially synonymous with dishonesty. Evidence of close ties with him has the potential to hurt future job and business prospects.

The amount of bridges Wright has burned may have ended any hope of a substantial recovery from his current circumstances. If Wright were truly a smart individual, he would not have displayed such low emotional intelligence. Due to his callous actions, his innocent family members have to live with the stigma of his fraud.

Conclusion

BSVers who have moved on after being caught in the web of Wright's fraud have learned an expensive but valuable lesson. Luckily, for those who truly understand Bitcoin, it was obvious from the start that Craig Wright was nothing more than a sloppy con artist.

COPA and Judge Mellor brought much-needed justice against Faketoshi after his vicious attacks against heroic opponents like Cobra, Hodlonaut, Peter McCormack, Greg Maxwell, and others. In a monumental victory for the Bitcoin world, Craig Wright will never be able to threaten anyone else legally with his false Satoshi claims. As a result of Wright's crimes, it appears that he is doomed, both personally and professionally.

 

* Disclaimer: The author's conclusion surrounding Wright's mental state is solely an opinion and not any form of diagnosis.

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