No action: Lack of evidence against bitcoin developer

Valerie Falk, DBE, a British High Court judge and senior judicial commissioner, ruled on March 25, 2022, that Seychelles-based Tulip Trading Limited, a company run by self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) inventor Craig Wright, lacks legal grounds to sue core Bitcoin (BTC) developers over an alleged hack in February 2020.

Craig Wright’s claims are false

The judge plainly dismissed Craig Wright’s claims, according to the wording of the court ruling released by the official England and Wales High Court portal.

Wladimir van der Laan, Pieter Wuille, and Jonas Schnelli, the three lead maintainers of Bitcoin (BTC), were charged by CSW for refusing to “take actions to allow TTL to reclaim control of the assets.”

Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether a hack took place as claimed: “stolen” assets have been declared inactive by a court order.

Dame Falk emphasized that even if the hack occurred and Mr. Wright suffered significant losses, the defendants could not be held liable for refusing to assist him in recovering his funds by disrupting network integrity:

The fact that the BSV Network is considering a system modification to accommodate the loss of private key access does not mean that such a change, whether general or specific to TTL, can be forced on others.

The Twitter community praised Judge

Generally, Crypto Twitter criticized CSW’s charges and praised the sarcastic tone of the court ruling, as well as the judge’s in-depth comprehension of what blockchain is:

I believe Mrs. Justice Falk has handled the situation far better than some had anticipated. The decision is well-thought-out and presented.

The assertions were criticized by WizSec, a blockchain-focused cybersecurity firm, for their lack of formal logic:

As a result, CSW threatened and filed a lawsuit for breach of duty, yet not only does the duty not exist, but the *breach* hasn’t occurred yet, and won’t until the court rules in his favor, according to his own updated reasoning.

“Not your keys, not your crypto”

The order appears to be a huge defeat for Craig Wright: the court dismissed his allegations on a technicality rather than on legal grounds.

The above judgment is one of the first legal documents to state that blockchain creators and maintainers are not responsible for private key issues.

The motto “not your keys, not your crypto” is apparently accepted by the England and Wales High Court, which is what decentralization is all about. And this is more than just a new chapter in the “CSW vs. Bitcoiners” saga.

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Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing