The man who claims to be the creator of the first ever cryptocurrency is based on “a brazen lie”, a senior lawyer told the High Court today.
Australian computer scientist Dr Craig Wright has long claimed to be behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the name used by the person authored the Bitcoin White Paper.
There is currently a case at the High Court which began today to decide on the identity of if Wright is in fact Satoshi Nakamoto. There are two cases that are being heard together as the judge believed this issue needed to be establish in both cases.
The first case is Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit set up to keep cryptocurrency technology free from patents, which is suing Wright over his claim that he is the creator.
While the second case is Wright suing 26 blockchain developers as he seeks recognition of alleged copyrights over the Bitcoin white paper and database rights over the entire Bitcoin blockchain
Today, COPA’s barrister Jonathan Hough KC of 4 New Square Chambers told the court that “Wright’s claim to be Satoshi is a lie founded on an elaborate false narrative and backed by forgery of documents on an industrial scale.”
Hough KC told the court that Wright is backed by “the wealthy gambling entrepreneur Calvin Ayre” in order to assert his rights to the White Paper, named ‘Bitcoin’ and the Bitcoin blockchain.
He said that Wright has threatened and pursued multiple pieces of litigation against cryptocurrency developers, and had even “threatened them with bribery and prison”.
In his opening to the court, the Silk stated that Wright’s “false documents and inconsistencies have been exposed”. One of the examples he used was Wright’s claim that the Bitcoin White Paper was written in LaTeX code.
He told the court that “both sides expects have proven this to be a lie”, stating that both parties’ experts agreed that the White Paper was not written in LaTeX.
This trial is being closely watched by many in the crypto space as the judge commenting this morning that over 400 people were watching virtually, in addition to a packed court that flowed into a second courtroom.
Wright tried to stop the case hitting to court today by issued a settlement offer to all parties to which COPA posted on X (formally Twitter): “Hard pass on that ‘settlement’. Just like Craig Wright forges documents and doesn’t quite tell the truth, his description of the settlement offer isn’t quite accurate either – it comes with loopholes that would allow him to sue people all over again.”
Wright’s barrister Lord Grabiner KC of One Essex Court told the judge today that Wright is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He informed the court to remind the parties ahead of when Wright is cross-examined as part of the evidence.
The case is set to continue until 1 March with a closing submission on from 12 to 15 March.
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