By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 7 February 2024
On the second day of the COPA v Wright trial at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, in February 2024, the court began examining Craig Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto and to own the copyright in the bitcoin whitepaper. Bird & Bird represented COPA, which was supported by Jack Dorsey, and Macfarlanes represented the bitcoin developers, against Wright’s solicitors, Shoosmiths. COPA’s legal team called Wright’s claim “a brazen lie.”
Wright was questioned about “BlackNet”, which he described as a preliminary version of the whitepaper, and replied, “I am allowed to self plagiarise.” Jonathan Hough KC, for COPA, challenged a video Wright had made to show his ownership of bitcoin domains, as well as his inconsistent explanations of his credit card statements. At the time, the case was expected to run for another five weeks.