Last month I wrote about the extraordinary trial which pitted an Australian IT expert Craig Wright who claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, against the Bitcoin establishment in the form of COPA, which said he was a fraud. The case wound up yesterday with closing arguments from both sides and while most unbiased observers thought Wright’s evidence had been as full of holes as a Swiss cheese, just about everyone expected the judge Mr Justice Mellor to say we would have to wait for his written judgment to be delivered in a few months.
And as he began his remarks that did indeed seem to be the plan with the judge saying his judgment “will be ready when it's ready and not before.” But then he delivered a bombshell:
”However, having considered all the evidence and submissions presented to me in this trial, I've reached the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming.
Therefore, for the reasons which will be explained in that written judgment in due course, I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are
necessary to do justice between the parties.
First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.
Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011.
Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System.
And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software.”
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A resounding defeat then for Craig Wright and his backers, notably the Canadian casino billionaire Calvin Ayre, who built a blockchain empire around the Australian’s claim to be Satoshi, including a crypto coin called BSV - Bitcoin Satoshi Vision. Its value plunged by more than 10% on the news, though it is so thinly traded that its price is easily manipulated, so don’t be surprised if it bounces around over the coming days.
But for those like the Norwegian “Hodlonaut” and British bitcoin enthusiast Peter McCormack who have found themselves the target of Wright’s lawsuits this is a sweet moment. They found themselves threatened with bankruptcy by the cost of defending themselves in libel suits against such well funded opponents, even though they knew they had a strong case. London has become the capital of this kind of “lawfare”, with English libel laws almost uniquely unfriendly to the defendants. It is to be hoped that this case will make this brand of legal bullying less common but don’t bet on it.
Calvin Ayre, to widespread derision, took to Twitter to insist “Craig invented Bitcoin yesterday and he will still be the guy who invented Bitcoin tomorrow.’ His propaganda arm Coingeek had to report the judgement through gritted teeth, while hinting that it was likely to be overturned on appeal.
What seems far more likely is that the judge who talked of overwhelming evidence has been convinced by COPA’s assertion that Craig Wright’s case consisted of “serial forgeries” including, incredibly, a faked email presented in the middle of the trial which Wright claimed was the result of hackers spying on his home. If the judge decides that the Australian’s performance in the witness box amounts to perjury things could take a very serious turn for him.
On a lighter note, I can’t help wondering what this means for my finances. In 2016 to back up his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright asked me and two crypto experts, Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis, to send a small amount of bitcoin to an address known to be controlled by Satoshi - and he would return it. He never has, and the value of the 0.01701BTC I sent has now risen from around £5 to nearly £1000.
My witness statement about this incident was not challenged by Wright’s lawyers and so formed part of that ‘overwhelming evidence’ which led Judge Mellor to rule that the Australian was not Satoshi. If he knew that he was not Satoshi and yet encouraged me to send my money to a place from which it could never return, have I not a case that I am the victim of a fraud? Don’t worry Craig, I can’t afford to hire the lawyers to take you on. But an apology would be nice.
If you want to know the full grisly details of the story of Craig Wright, I heartily recommend the podcast from which I have stolen my headline, Dr Bitcoin, The Man Who Wasn’t Satoshi Nakamoto. The presenters Mark Hunter and Arthur van Pelt deserve huge credit for chipping away at Craig Wright’s monstrous edifice of lies for years and never getting sued.
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