Some of the most prominent voices in the Bitcoin community have rallied behind the Bitcoin whitepaper seemingly in response to legal threats from nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright against the website that hosted Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper.
Bitcoin.org, the website registered by Satoshi Nakamoto, published an announcement revealed that the website, along with Bitcoincore.org, received “allegations of copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper by lawyers representing Craig Steven Wright.
The letter, the announcement adds, claims Wright “owns the copyright to the paper, the Bitcoin name, and ownership of bitcoin.org.” It’s worth noting Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of BTC who has yet to be conclusively identified.
Bitcoin.org’s announcement adds that the Bitcoin whitepaper was “ included in the original Bitcoin project files with the project clearly published under the MIT license by Satoshi Nakamoto.” The website’s administrators add they believe “there is no doubt” they have the legal right to host the whitepaper.
As CoinDesk reports, a number of influential organizations in the cryptocurrency space have responded to the legal threats by hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper on their own websites. These include:
- The crypto arm of payments giant Square
- Bitcoin development funder Chaincode Labs
- Policy think-tank Coin Center
- Facebook subsidiary Novi
- Self-custody app Casa
- Bitcoin financial services firm NYDIG
- Crypto exchange Binance
- Crypto data aggregator CryptoCompare
- Institutional crypto solutions firm Fidelity Digital Assets
The whitepaper is now also being hosted by several crypto community members. Riccardo ‘fluffypony’ Spagni, an influential developer known for his work on Monero, created a website specifically to host the whitepaper.
Some also uploaded the document to the “uncensorable web” using the InterPlanetary File System (IFPS) and the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). While Bitcoincore.org seemingly took down its copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper, Bitcoin.org kept it live.
In response, Craig Wright’s lawyers have sent Square a letter that reads they consider uploading the whitepaper a “straightforward copyright infringement claim.” The letter reads Wright has decided “that it is time to enforce his copyright in the White Paper.”
Featured image via Pixabay.
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