By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 14 March 2024
On 14 March 2024, at the end of the six-week COPA v Wright trial at the Rolls Building in London, Mr Justice Mellor announced that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin. The Crypto Open Patent Alliance was represented by Jonathan Hough KC of Bird & Bird, and the Bitcoin Core developers by Alex Gunning KC and Beth Collett of Macfarlanes.
The article recalls how Wright’s claims had affected others, including Peter McCormack, whom Wright sued for libel over tweets, and Hodlonaut, whose identity was exposed after Wright’s associates offered a bounty and hired private investigators. COPA said it would seek a court order to prevent Wright from making the claim again. At the time, a written judgment setting out the reasons and any relief was expected to follow.