Roger Ver snub prompts Craig Wright’s lawyers to seek court order over libel claim

Legal representatives for Dr. Craig Wright are about to serve Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver legal papers in Japan.

Wright recently filed a legal claim for libel against Ver, who was featured in an April 15 video on Bitcoin.com’s YouTube channel declaring that “Craig Wright is a liar and a fraud. So sue me. Again.” The video has since been taken down, after it was pointed out that posting libelous material is a civil and criminal offense in Japan, and punishable by up to three years’ jail time.

Ver, however, has yet to make a public apology to Wright, despite warnings from the latter’s lawyers that legal action would follow unless Ver agrees to issue the necessary apology—either via his personal online accounts or via Bitcoin.com.

Ver was personally served with the legal papers by Dr. Wright’s representatives on May 2 at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen 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 support@bitcoin.com. But when sought for a written confirmation, Ver didn’t respond to Wright’s attorneys.

In response to the snub, Wright’s lawyers are now seeking a court order allowing them to serve the documents out of the jurisdiction on Ver in Japan, where he currently resides.

In his libel claim, filed before the UK’s Royal Courts of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Wright is seeking £100,000 in monetary damages as well as an undertaking restraining Ver and any of his affiliated entities. Contrary to Ver’s “again” statement, this is the first time that Wright had taken legal action against the so-called “Bitcoin Jesus.”

It’s worth noting that Ver had been publicly supporting Wright 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 as the protocol—capable of massive on-chain scaling—represents a threat to the future of other cryptocurrencies.

Wright will be a featured speaker at the upcoming CoinGeek Conference in Toronto on May 29-30, which welcomes supporters of all cryptocurrencies. If you believe in the vision of the original Bitcoin white paper, and get excited when you think about the unlimited possibilities with Bitcoin SV, there’s still time to register for the CoinGeek Toronto scaling conference, and you can even save money by using BSV via Coingate.