Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? British court hears "real and fake Satoshi Nakamoto" case

Author: Sandali Handagama, Coindesk; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

• A British court has begun hearing the case against Craig Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

• On the day of the trial, some accused Wright of fabricating his evidence and countered that his challengers could not prove that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto.

A much-anticipated trial begins in Britain's High Court on Monday investigating Australian computer scientist Craig Wright's claims that he was responsible for the groundbreaking 2008 According to the pseudonymous author of the Bitcoin Manifesto. At this trial, the judge decided to allow Wright to introduce some new evidence to support his case.

Wright, who insists he is the mysterious visionary Satoshi Nakamoto, has taken legal action on numerous occasions to hold members of the crypto community accountable, including those developing on the open-source Bitcoin project claim they infringed copyright.

In 2021, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit organization backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and some well-known industry players, sued Wright, questioning his Bitcoin white paper paper) authorship. While this is certainly not the first organization to raise questions about Wright, COPA may be the league that has taken the most threatening action against him to date.

COPA rejected Wright's offer to settle the lawsuit in January 2021, expressing hope that a favorable outcome of the trial would mean the self-styled Satoshi Nakamoto's legal war with the Bitcoin community would come to an end. .

A spokesman for COPA said in an interview after Monday's court hearing: "Hopefully at the end of this case, when you stand up to a bully, the bully will back down and stop the bully. conduct.We are seeking an injunction that will forever prevent Dr. Wright from doing this again.”

In its lawsuit, COPA details Wright’s accusations of falsifying the information he has so far committed in order to A document created to prove that you are Satoshi Nakamoto. “Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto is a brazen lie and a carefully constructed false narrative supported by massive forgery,”a spokesperson for COPA said.

At the Business and Property Court of England and Wales on Monday, the situation (substantially) came to a head as lawyers for Wright and COPA went head-to-head to deal with the wide-ranging allegations and the new evidence Wright sought to bring before the court. Getting more nervous.

At the end of the day, presiding judge James Mellor allowed new evidence submitted by Wright to be admitted, subject to expert review and subject to COPA cross-examination.

Hamlet without the Prince

Although the focus of COPA is to reveal that Wright struggled to prove himself Nakamoto Cong was suspected of forging documents, but the defense argued that his education and professional background gave him the ability to invent something like Bitcoin.

Wright's defense lawyer, Lord Anthony Grabiner, said on Monday: "COPA cannot point to any direct evidence that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto." He also claimed that there was no one else Coming forward and claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto suggests that Wright is a possible candidate.

Lord Grabiner said: "This is a view of Hamlet without the prince." He later added that even if Satoshi preferred to remain anonymous, he could declare his to the court anonymously. identity, but that didn't happen.

He added that COPA is not Satoshi Nakamoto either and they are only concerned with undermining Wright’s claims.

Lord Grabiner said: "Given the public concern and the unlimited resources COPA has deployed in these proceedings, it is surprising that COPA has been unable to point to any direct evidence that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto."< /p>

A spokesperson for COPA stated that the alliance is not concerned with finding or revealing the real Satoshi Nakamoto, but is concerned with proving once and for all that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.

“We hope that when all is said and done, we will have stood up for developers who cannot defend themselves and that they will be able to freely contribute to Bitcoin and not be targeted by people like Craig "People like Wright are intimidated and frightened," the spokesman said.

The trial will continue at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, with Wright's testimony and cross-examination beginning on Tuesday and continuing until approximately February 13.

A spokesman for Wright noted that his legal team, led by British law firm Shoosmiths, was unlikely to comment on the ongoing trial.