Bitcoin Defense Lawyer Says Craig Wright Lawsuit Could Harm Open Source Software

The Bitcoin Defense Legal Fund's legal director has spoken out against an "extraordinarily dangerous" lawsuit initiated by Craig Wright, a person who claims to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

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Jessica Jonas, legal director of the nonprofit Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, discussed the potential legal ramifications of a high-profile lawsuit against top Bitcoin developers at the Bitcoin 2023 event in Miami on May 18.

The case in question is a legal action brought in the UK by Craig Wright, the owner/operator of Tulip Trading. Wright is perhaps best known for his claim that he is the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto - a claim resulting in another unrelated lawsuit.

Just a quick reminder for BTC Core and Roger Inc.

You are on litigation hold. These telegram groups, signaling groups, others that you think I'm not aware of are all uncovered evidence and spoliation is a criminal offence. pic.twitter.com/vtjFmeGrRd

— Dr Craig S Wright (@Dr_CSWright) February 3, 2023

In the case between Tulip Trading and 14 named individuals allegedly involved in the open source development of Bitcoin Core, and others, Wright alleges that said developers owe him a fiduciary duty. Jonas described the case as "an allegation that Tulip Trading allegedly owned 111,000 Bitcoins and was hacked, allegedly, and lost those 111,000 Bitcoins in a very Ocean's 11 style hack."

In order to obtain compensation for the alleged loss, Wright is requesting, according to Jonas, that the Bitcoin developers “create a backdoor in the main Bitcoin blockchain so that Tulip Trading can recover any funds it may have lost” , a remedy that Jonas claims cannot be implemented:

"They are asking the court to order this group of software developers to write a patch in the software that hijacks...