Maths v Law: To Fork or Not To Fork, That Is The Question
A few years ago, in a debate over encryption, the Prime Minister (Malcolm Turnbull) defined that, in his country, that mathematics comes in second place to law. When asked how this could be achieved, he said:
“Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia
Well, the mathematical near-certainty of cryptography and the complexity of blockchain is now the subject of a number of legal challenges. At the core of the current set of challenges are: who really invented Bitcoin; the ownership of the copyright of the Bitcoin whitepaper; and claims for a stake on various Bitcoin wallets. A fundamental question, though, appears … who really has the power? The cryptographic process (and its near mathematical certainty) or law?
Is Craig Satoshi?
As far as Craig Wright is concerned, he is the creator, and it was him alone. And so there is a courtroom battle going on, and which questions if Craig was the sole creator of Bitcoin, and/or whether he partnered with others:
