The trial that could end Craig Wright’s Satoshi claim begins today
Forged documents, anachronistic evidence, false statements. According to the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), Craig Steven Wright has been coming up with all this for the past few years to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, and the non-profit group says it is time for his “brazen behavior to stop.” “I believe it. It’s a lie”. On Day 1 of the COPA v. Wright trial in London, COPA issued the first statement in what will be weeks of efforts to put a full stop to Wright’s litigation activities.
This trial is particularly important because it will have implications for several upcoming court cases, including one filed by Wright against several Bitcoin Core contributors. If COPA can prove that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, I don’t think Wright stands a chance in this case. However, if a High Court judge rules that Wright is in fact the creator of Bitcoin, the Australian computer scientist could end up gaining copyright to the Bitcoin whitepaper and source code, severely hampering the Bitcoin development process. Already, Wright’s actions appear to have had a somewhat chilling effect on the open source development community.
The list of obvious frauds presented by COPA is long and in some cases rather technical. There is also evidence that Wright used software that was not available to Satoshi Nakamoto, as well as digital forensics that revealed outdated documents and forged files. In other cases, the anachronisms seem quite blatant, such as the handwritten notes on EdDSA signature testing for Bitcoin. The signature algorithm was only introduced in 2011, more than two years after the Bitcoin source code was published.
Wright’s attorney would not comment today. After all, their clients claimed to share both Satoshi Nakamoto’s philosophy and the technology the Bitcoin inventor supposedly possessed. They argue that this, combined with eyewitness accounts that Wright cryptographically signed the data using a key that only Satoshi Nakamoto should possess, makes it highly likely that their client is actually who he says he is. It is plausible that Wright no longer has access to more evidence to prove his claims, his attorney added. That’s because the Australian destroyed a lot of evidence after suffering a mental breakdown and almost committing suicide.
In the coming weeks, both sides’ claims will be further examined as a number of expert witnesses, starting with Wright, take turns testifying before Superior Court Judge Justice Miller. The trial is expected to last until the end of March, with a final ruling expected later.
Please see the following X thread for more details on today’s progress: Norbert and BitMEX Research.
