Hodlonaut Prevails in Lawsuit Against Self-Described Satoshi Craig Wright

Twitter’s anonymous Bitcoiner Hodlonaut has officially won their lawsuit against Craig Wright – the Australian computer Scientist who claims to be Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. 

• According to the ruling, Norwegian judge Helen Engebrigtsen declared that Hodlonaut had “sufficient factual grounds to claim that Wright had lied and cheated in his attempt to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.”
• The Twitter user claimed in 2019 that Wright is both a “fraud” and “scammer,” in a series of tweets, standing by his belief that Wright is lying about his identity as Bitcoin’s creator. 
• Hodlonaut then sued Wright in Norway, pre-empting a defamation suit in the U.K. from the computer scientist, asking the court to rule that their tweets are protected by freedom of speech. 
• According to CoinDesk, the judge’s ruling found Hodlonaut’s characterization of Wright was justified.
• “The court believes that ‘fraud’/’fraudulently’ in this context means “one who is something other than what he claims to be.’ ‘Fake’ has a similar meaning: ‘illegitimate,’ ‘false,’ ‘something other than what he pretends to be,” Engebrigtsen wrote. “‘Scammer’ must be understood the same way, in the sense of ‘swindler’ or ‘cheat maker.’”
• Hodlonaut will not be required to pay compensation claims and is not liable for damages the tweets may have caused. Meanwhile, Wright has been ordered to pay the Twitter user NOK 4,053,750, worth approximately $383,000.