Craig Wright vs Hodlonaut trial could go to second round Craig Wright vs Hodlonaut trial could go to second round
An appeal hearing in the UK might bring a new trial outside of the Norwegian jurisdiction
2 min read
Updated: Aug. 21, 2023 at 2:37 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Crypto influencer Hodlonaut has updated the community regarding his legal quarrel with Craig Wright and said that Wright appealed his loss and called for a new trial.
Hodlonaut said they responded by trying to reason with the authorities as to why Wright’s appeal shouldn’t be heard.
“Craig has appealed his loss in Norway. We have replied with our reasoning for why it should not be heard. Waiting for the court of appeals to decide if there will be a new trial.”
The result of the trial Hodlonaut won in Norway will be considered in a separate hearing in London, where the legal dispute first started. If the court decides in favor of Wright, the second trial will be an addition to the London hearing.
The finances
After the date of the trial in Norway was decided, Hodlonaut started a campaign to ask for the community’s financial support.
Hodlonaut said that he couldn’t meet the legal costs and would hate to give Wright an easy win. He stated:
“UK litigation is extremely expensive, and the last hope of my opposition is that I will not be able to continue and thus give them a default win.“
The community rallied against Hodlonaut and showed its support, which totaled around $1.3 million with the current Bitcoin (BTC) price, which is $17,821 at the time of writing.
In the update he published on Dec. 14, Hodlonaut also stated that £11,400 had been paid to the UK lawyers for the London hearing, and the total cost of the courts in Norway and London is estimated to be around $2 million.
Even though it seems like Hodlonaut is $700,000 short, he stated that all collected funds he does not use will remain untouched and be available for “future defenses of Bitcoin and Bitcoiners.”
Summary of the trial
The dispute started in 2019 between Magnus Granath, known as Hodlonaut, and Craig Steven Wright.
Wright has been claiming that he was the mysterious founder of BTC, Satoshi Nakamoto. Many crypto community members, including Hodlonaut, have been denying Wright’s claims by publicly saying that Wright was lying.
However, Wright concluded that Hodlonaut’s dismissal of his claims was particularly harmful to Wright’s reputation in the UK. Therefore, Wright filed a lawsuit against Hodlonaut, asking the court to assess the damage Hodlonaut dealt to his reputation. Yet, the High Court of Justice in the UK decided that Norway had jurisdiction over the matter and dismissed the case in Jan. 2020.
The trial started in Norway on Sept. 12, 2022, and ended with Hodlonaut’s victory on Sept. 20. The judge ruled that the evidence presented by Hodloaut was sufficient to prove that Wright had been lying about being Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Craig Steven Wright, commonly referred to as CSW, is an Australian computer scientist and business professional who has been at the center of controversy within the cryptocurrency community.
