Bitcoin News Thebittimes.Com

A UK judge has branded litigious computer scientist Craig Wright an arrogant liar who frequently uses ‘technobabble’ and isn’t ‘nearly as clever as he thinks he is.’ The damning comments were made by Mr. Justice Mellor in a written judgment to accompany the March verdict in the civil lawsuit brought by the non-profit Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) that asked the court to rule that Wright didn’t create the world’s most famous cryptocurrency. Wright has been attempting to convince the world that he is Bitcoin’s creator ever since he claimed to the Australian Tax Office in 2013 that he controlled in excess of 1 million bitcoins. He has subsequently sought on multiple occasions to shut down anybody who challenges this view. According to BitMEX Research, the High Court’s written judgment used the word ‘forgery’ 130 times. It was hoped that such a ruling would prevent the famously litigious Wright from continuing with separate lawsu...

An ex-takeaway worker living in the UK has been found guilty of laundering funds for a Chinese fraudster and managing over £2 billion ($2.5 billion ) in Bitcoin that has now been seized by police.   The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced Jian Wen’s conviction at Southwark Court on Wednesday. It noted that the 42-year-old was guilty of one of three money laundering charges.  Wen had reportedly lived a ‘modest lifestyle’ in Leeds before meeting Yadi Zhang, real name Zhimin Qian. Zhang is a Chinese national and a wanted fugitive accused of making $6 billion in Bitcoin through scamming nationals in China.   The two moved to London and bought a six-bedroom manor house in 2017. They reportedly claimed to be international jewelers with Wen acting as a ‘front person.’ Zhang gave Wen 3,000 bitcoins, worth £15 million at the time and Wen helped convert it into various luxury items, cash, and property to disguise the true source of the funds. ...

Day 18 of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) v. Craig Wright trial saw, for the first time, an entire day’s worth of questions focused on Satoshi’s private keys. Wright claims that they’re his but COPA says he’s not Satoshi. As Bitcoin’s creator and first miner, Satoshi earned over 1 million bitcoin via Bitcoin’s coinbase mining reward.  Those wallets hold over $60 billion worth of Bitcoin today meaning that, unless Satoshi destroyed, gave away, or died with those private keys, they might be the 25th richest person on Forbes’ billionaire leaderboard. The court welcomes two cryptographers Two witnesses took the stand in London’s High Court of Justice on Wednesday to discuss exactly who owns Satoshi’s private keys. First up was Zeming Gao, who describes himself as a ‘student of truth’ and an intellectual property attorney-turned ‘company-as-a-product” consultant. He also authored Bit & Coin: Merging Digitality and Physicality: Volume I. ...

A ransomware group that has reportedly extorted more than $100 million in bitcoin ransom s since 2022 claims that it has hacked a large UK water firm and is holding it to ransom . Black Basta announced via its Tor site this week that it had stolen 750 gigabytes of sensitive data, including passports, driving licenses, employee information, and corporate documents from Southern Water.  As reported by Computing, Black Basta has given Southern Water six days to pay a ransom or it will publish the stolen data on February 29 . The firm says it’s aware of the leak and noted it “previously detected suspicious activity, and had launched an investigation, led by independent cyber security specialists.” We're aware of a claim by cyber criminals that data has been stolen from some of our IT systems. We currently have no evidence customer relationships or financial systems have been affected. Our services are operating normally and we've notified regulators https://t.co/jdR...

In November, Sam Bankman-Fried ’s FTX empire crumbled. Numerous businesses were impacted by FTX ’s collapse, which also shocked the cryptocurrency industry. Following that, FTX filed for bankruptcy, and SBF stepped down as CEO. SBF has been under scrutiny ever since. New events regarding the FTX scenario were surfacing almost every day. According to the details in the latest press release by the government of the UK, the Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into the Effective Ventures Foundation. We’ve opened an inquiry into Effective Ventures Foundation following the bankruptcy of a significant funder. Read more: https://t.co/zjH1TdysYf pic.twitter.com/Qda9I0YwVP — Charity Commission (@ChtyCommission) January 30, 2023 FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried were significant funders of the charity The investigation by the Charity Commission for England and Wales is mainly due to the fact that the charity was backed by FTX and SBF. The press...