Roger Ver turns to UK lawyers for help in Craig Wright’s libel claim

Roger Ver turns to UK lawyers for help in Craig Wright’s libel claim

After weeks of stalling, Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver has finally taken action in response to Dr. Craig Wright’s legal claim for libel.

On Tuesday, legal representatives for Dr. Wright received a notification from UK solicitors Brett Wilson LLP that they have been instructed by the Bitcoin.com CEO to handle the libel claim filed against him. Wright’s lawyers expect to hear from Ver’s camp about the latter’s position within 28 days.

Wright, who has been on a pursuit of justice against those who seek to deny his claim to being the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, filed a legal claim for libel against Ver in response to a video on Bitcoin.com’s YouTube channel in which Ver declared: “Craig Wright is a liar and a fraud. So sue me. Again.”

The video was taken down after Ver’s follower pointed out that posting libelous material is a civil and criminal offense in Japan, where he’s currently based, and punishable by up to three years’ jail time. Ver has yet to issue a public apology to Wright, who was recently granted U.S. copyright registrations for the Bitcoin whitepaper and code.

Wright’s representatives personally served the legal papers to Ver on May 2 in London, where a hastily organized Bitcoin Cash (BCH) event was held. At the time, Ver told the representative that he would accept service of the court documents by email to his Bitcoin.com address, or to [email protected]. Ver then proceeded to snub Wright’s attorneys who sought for a written confirmation, prompting the latter to seek a court order allowing them to serve the documents out of the jurisdiction on Ver in Japan.

Wright is seeking £100,000 in monetary damages as well as an undertaking restraining Ver and any of his affiliated entities from making further allegations that deny Wright’s claim to being the founder of Bitcoin. This is the first time that Wright had taken legal action against the Bitcoin.com executive, who had been publicly supporting Wright’s claims as Satoshi until the nChain chief scientist broke off from the BCH camp to launch Bitcoin SV (BSV).

As the driving force behind the BSV protocol, Wright is convinced that the attacks against him are intended to take down BSV given that the protocol, which is capable of massive on-chain scaling, represents a threat to the future of other cryptocurrencies.

While we wait for Ver’s response, crypto advocates are invited to attend the CoinGeek scaling conference in Toronto on May 29-30, where the discussions will center on technology—not lawsuits. Aside from discussions about the advantages of massive on-chain scaling, those in attendance will also have a special opportunity to attend a Fireside Chat featuring Wright and Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, who will have a wide ranging discussion about Bitcoin’s beginnings, the destiny that Bitcoin was created to achieve, and how BSV is fulfilling Satoshi’s Vision.

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