Wright, who claims to be 'Satoshi Nakamoto', applies for hundreds of Bitcoin and blockchain patents, and a patent war is coming

Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, has not been able to provide definitive evidence to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. However, according to documents reviewed by his colleagues and Reuters, he is currently working to build a large portfolio of Bitcoin and blockchain patents. He has now been called a "patent troll" and is applying for some blockchain patents worth billions of dollars. The Bitcoin community has expressed strong opposition. As blockchain technology has gained more and more attention, the potential value that this technology can bring has risen rapidly, and naturally someone has taken over this multi-billion dollar patent industry.

According to Reuters :

Government records show that Wright has filed more than 50 patent applications in the UK through EITC Holdings Ltd., a company registered in Antigua, since February, which sources at EITC confirmed.

In interviews, these sources confirmed that they are still filing more patent applications. Last week, the UK Intellectual Property Office published another 11 patent applications.

Patent applications have not stopped, said a person close to the company who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Wright declined to comment.

The portfolio outlines plans to apply for up to 400 patents in total, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

In May 2016, the skeptical Bitcoin community gave Wright the specific task of proving that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, but Wright failed to provide further evidence to prove himself.

Last weekend, novelist and journalist Andrew O'Haga wrote a lengthy article about Craig Wright in the London Review of Books (LRB), in which he also said that Wright and his team are looking into applying for hundreds of patents:

Wright has been working on new applications for the blockchain technology he invented as Satoshi Nakamoto. In other words, he is using blockchain technology to create new versions of the formula that could replace the accounting and registration systems and centralized management that banks and governments rely on at one stroke. Wright and his people are preparing a large number of patents, each of which aims to rework financial, social, legal or medical services to expand the basic concept of the "distributed public ledger" that constitutes the blockchain. Even by normal geek standards, this is a utopian idea, but blockchain is currently a hot topic in the computer science and banking fields, and has received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.

…The people at nCrypt were well aware of the plan. They had brought Wright to London and set up a research and development center for him, with nearly 30 people working on his research. They would finish Wright’s inventions and apply for patents—Wright appears to have filed hundreds of them—many of which would be sold as Satoshi’s work. Once packaged, Matthews and MacGregor planned to sell the intellectual property for billions in royalties. MacGregor told me that he was in talks with Google and Uber, as well as some Swiss banks. “Our plan was to package and sell the patents, not to implement them,” Matthews told me.

The BBC also reported on this news :

…O’Hagan shows us something quite different — a man under enormous pressure from business partners who value profit over whether or not he is Satoshi.

The individuals signed an agreement with Wright in June last year, which saw them pay off his debts, including legal fees with the Australian Taxation Office.
Then they devised a plan for Wright.

"They will bring Wright to London and set up a research and development center for him, with 30 people working for him," O'Hagan wrote.

“They will complete Wright’s inventions and apply for patents — Wright appears to have applied for hundreds of patents — and many of them will be sold as Satoshi’s work.”

The intellectual property Wright has created and is still creating will be worth as much as $1 billion with Satoshi’s name attached to it, so they will eventually be very wealthy indeed.

Finally, we cannot confirm Wright’s role in the creation of Bitcoin. It seems likely that he was involved in the creation of Bitcoin, perhaps along with Dave Kleiman and Hal Finney, who received the first Bitcoin transaction.

Wright may also have exaggerated his contributions, he may have constructed a very elaborate fantasy — or his nerves may have snapped when he realized that once he was Satoshi, his life would never be the same again.

If you were expecting O'Hagan to reveal the mystery of Bitcoin's creator, you will be disappointed.

But if you like a good old-fashioned story—geek culture with some sharp insights—you’ll find that The Satoshi Affair is a surefire way to while away a few hours.