The trial of Craig Wright, an Australian who claims to be the originator of bitcoin, against an organization in the sector which accuses him of imposture, opened Monday in London under the eye of the entire cryptosphere.
Impassive alongside his defense, the 53-year-old computer scientist and entrepreneur, brown hair, striped suit drawn with a line and strong build, was content to listen to the preliminary presentation, led by the opposing party, representing an association of players in the sector.
Sometimes playing on his cell phone or occasionally raising his eyebrows at the documents dissected on the big screen, the eccentric businessman, who defines himself on his website as “mathematician” and “pastor” among multiple hats, displayed an air of confidence.
He will be heard from Tuesday for six days. For almost a month and a half, the British High Court of Justice will work to determine whether or not Craig Wright wrote the “white paper”, a text at the origin of bitcoin published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in October 2008.
The one who earned from his detractors the nickname “Faketoshi” (for “false Satoshi”) claims copyright on this founding document, as well as on the code of this cryptocurrency.
“A large number of people from around the world have requested access to this trial,” remarked Judge James Mellor, also noting that he had received an email Saturday evening from an individual also claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
Mr. Wright is today facing the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), an association which aims to eliminate patents on technologies linked to cryptocurrencies, and which brings together heavyweights in the sector such as the Coinbase exchange platform and the Block company, specializing in digital payments and founded by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter.
Anachronistic
“A confabulator” who presented “a brazen lie”: this is how the lawyers of the opposing party present Mr. Wright, accusing him of having forged and manipulated documents that he presented to prove his statements.
COPA filed a legal action in April 2021 to ask a judge to declare that Mr. Wright is not the originator of the founding text of bitcoin, and thus put an end to his claims to intellectual property rights.
“Over a period of almost ten years, (Mr. Wright) was heavily pressured to prove that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, but consistently failed,” said Jonathan Hough KC, one of the lawyers representing COPA.
In the documents provided by Mr. Wright, he notes that the software used does not correspond to that which made it possible to write the original “white paper”, according to experts from both parties, and that there are traces of use of intelligence artificial conversational ChatGPT.
The lawyer representing COPA also cast doubt on the fortuitous nature of the discovery late last year of a hard drive containing additional evidence.
“COPA has not been able to provide any direct proof that Dr. Wright is not Satoshi,” retorted his lawyer Anthony Grabiner KC, denying that the documents presented are forged, and taking the exact opposite view of the opposing party.
According to him, for example, the use of remote virtual machines explains inconsistencies in modification dates in certain documents.
Citing his client’s educational and professional background, he stressed that “the creator of bitcoin would necessarily exhibit these or similar talents”, relating to law, monetary transactions and computer science.
The outcome of this case will determine that of another, pitting Mr. Wright against 26 developers, individuals as well as companies like the Coinbase platform, which he accuses of having infringed on his intellectual property rights.
In a separate case, a company owned by Mr. Wright, Seychelles-based Tulip Trading, filed a lawsuit against the Bitcoin Association and several developers, demanding that they provide him with access to billions of dollars in bitcoins that he claims to own it.
Today the largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, bitcoin introduced the principle of the blockchain – a sort of large decentralized ledger on which all cryptocurrency transactions are recorded – and popularized digital currencies.