As he started his testimony in a court case concerning ownership of the cryptocurrency, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be the creator of bitcoin informed a London court on Tuesday that he had never falsified documents to try to support his fiercely contested claim.
According to Craig Wright, he is the creator of the 2008 white paper that established bitcoin and was released under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
However, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has filed a lawsuit against Wright, urging the court to prohibit him from suing the creators of bitcoin and to maintain the open-source character of the most well-known and widely used cryptocurrency in the world.
The London High Court is being asked by COPA to declare that Wright is not Satoshi.
Wright, however, disputes using forged documents and places the blame for any such documents on others, such as former associates and attorneys.
The 54-year-old started the first of six days of testimony on Tuesday at the high-stakes hearing that marks the end of years of rumors over Satoshi Nakamoto’s genuine identity.
“Have you ever forged or falsified a document in support of your claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto?” inquired Wright on behalf of COPA’s attorney, Jonathan Hough. Wright answered, “No.”
“Have you ever knowingly presented a forged or falsified document in support of your claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto,” said Hough. In response, Wright said, “I have not.”
Hough submitted a number of purported fakes to Wright, including an academic article with handwritten annotations that, according to Wright, served as the catalyst for his choice to
According to COPA, in order to make the document appear as though it predates the Bitcoin White Paper, a fake timestamp with digits in distinctly different fonts is included.
Wright was told by Hough, “This is a document forged by you as part of the origin myth.”
Wright clarified that he did not falsify the document, saying, “It would be perfect if I did.“
