Craig Wright to Defend Allegations of Doctored Emails in Bitcoin Invention Trial

According to CoinDesk, Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist claiming to have invented bitcoin, may face cross-examination again on Friday in the ongoing trial. He is set to defend new allegations that emails intended to be shared in court were doctored. The trial, brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), could decide if Wright's claims of being Bitcoin's pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto hold true. COPA hopes the trial's outcome, if it confirms Wright is not Satoshi, would end his legal battles with the broader crypto community working on Bitcoin. Last week, Wright made a reference to some emails between him and his former legal representatives at Ontier. His current lawyers were compelled to submit those emails to evidence, but an inconsistency forced them to check with Ontier on the accuracy of the correspondence submitted by Wright's wife Ramona Watts. Ontier then responded that the emails appeared to be 'not genuine.' COPA is set to put the new allegations of forgery to Wright on Friday. Counsel for both COPA and Wright this week tried to undermine expert witnesses for the other party, particularly questioning their 'independence.' Wright's team questioned COPA expert witness Patrick Madden on why he'd enlisted the help of COPA's counsel at Bird & Bird LLP to organize the findings of his investigation into Wright's claims instead of seeking independent help. On the other hand, the COPA camp asked Wright's expert witness ZeMing Gao, who has authored multiple essays asserting Wright is Satoshi, whether he was truly an objective expert. Cryptography and security expert Sarah Meiklejohn also took the stand for COPA to defend her findings indicating key cryptographic signings Wright did as proof he's Satoshi may have been inadequate. The court will resume on March 12 for closing statements from both sides.