The case of the father of Bitcoin. A British court wanted to establish the identity of the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto

In 2008, the financial world was turned upside down by the emergence of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Its creator was a certain Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is still unknown. This figure has acquired a cult status in the crypto community and is overgrown with myths and guesses about who really was hiding under the mask of the Japanese genius. Nakamoto remains as much of a mystery to the world as British street artist Banksy. True, no one has yet claimed the identity of the latter, but Australian scientist Craig Wright calls himself Satoshi Nakamoto.

On Monday, February 5, court proceedings began in London, during which Wright had to prove that he is the legendary creator of Bitcoin. Skeptics just grinned, believing that he had nothing to show.

The most important process in the history of cryptocurrency

In February, a trial was held in the High Court of London in which the identity of the creator of Bitcoin, hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, could be established. It was under this name that the so-called “White Paper” was published in 2008, an official document that laid the foundation for cryptocurrency. Wright claims its authorship, as well as the intellectual property of Bitcoin. However, he was not the initiator of the current legal proceedings.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a group of cryptocurrency and technology funds that includes Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Block company, wanted the court to recognize that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, cannot lay claim to the fruits of the work of the unknown creator of Bitcoin and claim that the use of Bitcoin technology by others violates its intellectual property.

As Morning Brew noted, the future of cryptocurrency depended on the court’s decision. The case was a preliminary trial, and its outcome influenced numerous other lawsuits involving Wright and the various Bitcoin developers he sued, including Kraken and Coinbase.

There has been a trial on the case that Wright is not Nakamoto, Bitcoin will be able to continue to exist as is. There was news that if he was found to be Nakamoto, Wright would be able to ban developers from using Bitcoin without his approval. According to experts, the threat of legal action could scare off developers and potentially send Bitcoin into obscurity.

The trial took place and this is what we got!!!

Unmasking the impostor: A London court rendered a verdict in the case of Satoshi Nakamoto

A London court has made an unprecedented ruling against Australian computer scientist and businessman Craig Wright, ending a long-running dispute over the identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Judge Mellor announced the verdict immediately after the conclusion of the two-month trial, promising to present a detailed written reasoning in the near future.

In his verdict, the judge stated: “First, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto between 2008 and 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. And fourth, he is not the author of the original Bitcoin software."

The lawsuit against Wright was filed by a consortium of cryptocurrency companies, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa). Copa participants include well-known companies and personalities, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Coinbase and investment firm Bitcoin MicroStrategy. Their goal was to prevent Wright from further attempts to impersonate the creator of Bitcoin and use this to increase influence in the industry.

The charges against Wright, in particular, related to the falsification of documents submitted by him as evidence. The alliance's experts indicated that they found evidence of backdated changes made using versions of software that did not exist when the original documents were published. Thus, in one of the documents they found signs of text generation using ChatGPT.

Copa lawyer Jonathan Howe called Wright's claims "a blatant lie and a cleverly constructed fabrication backed by industrial-scale counterfeiting."

Surprisingly, even the experts representing Wright's defense agreed with much of the prosecution's findings, including that the original document on Bitcoin was created using OpenOffice software, while the version provided by Wright was written in LaTeX.

Under cross-examination, Wright himself questioned whether Dr Simon Plaks, the expert appointed by his own lawyers, was not qualified for the task. He stated that Plaks is a psychologist and does not have relevant knowledge in the field of information security.

A Copa spokesperson commented on the ruling as a victory for developers throughout the open source community: “For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers lied about being Satoshi Nakamoto and used those lies to intimidate developers in the Bitcoin community. All this ends today,” he concluded.

At the end of 2015, Wright stirred up the Bitcoin community with his statement that he was the very creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. The Australian "revealed his other identity" while speaking via Skype to an unsuspecting audience at a Bitcoin investor conference in Las Vegas. Many experts have raised serious doubts about the veracity of Wright’s statement, but no one has been able to provide 100% proof of the falsity (as well as the reliability) of this “confession.”