COPA vs. Dr. Craig Wright Could Change the Landscape of Bitcoin: Day 4 Trial Living HELL

The COPA vs. Craig Wright case represents a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and the foundational elements of bitcoin. The case will continue for the next 5 weeks.

That quote is not from our friends at CoinGeek.  That comes courtesy of arguably one of the leading voices in business, Forbes.

It's easy to get caught up in the in-fighting among various parties in the crypto space, all of whom are set in their ways. 

This is one HELL of a case, in more ways than one.  The court room was said to be sweltering on Thursday.

Let's look at Forbes take on the trial currently taking place in London as Day 4 has wrapped up. 

Susie Violet Ford explains what's at stake...and it's a lot.

"This case will dissect and investigate the complex issues surrounding copyright claims and the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin's mysterious creator.

"At the centre of the dispute lies the question of the true identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and the ownership of the copyright to the bitcoin whitepaper.

"Lawyers from Bird & Bird and Macfarlanes, representing COPA and the bitcoin developers respectively, faced off against Craig Wright's legal team from Shoosmiths in a legal battle that has attracted widespread attention. COPA is supported by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, highlighting the significant backing and resources available to the alliance in its legal efforts.

"During the proceedings, when questioned about the origins of the bitcoin whitepaper, which Wright alleges was initially titled 'BlackNet,' the court observed the striking similarities between this document and the bitcoin whitepaper. Wright defended his stance by saying, 'I am allowed to self plagiarise,' indicating that both works were indeed his own creation by claiming he wrote both papers.

"COPA's strategy aimed to dismantle Wright's claims through meticulous questioning and the presentation of evidence that questioned the authenticity of documents Wright had produced to support his claim to the Satoshi identity.

"The court scrutinized various documents, including those with misaligned numerals and disputed origins, challenging Wright's claims of authenticity. The cross-examination revealed a complex web of claims and counterclaims, with Wright's responses often leading to more questions than answers."

CoinGeek's Jordan Atkins take on the latter was a bit different.

"COPA’s esteemed attorney Jonathan Hough KC has done nothing but run in circles each time he accuses Dr. Wright of manipulating documents he says proves his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto."

Atkins notes that the "confusion" is a result of Dr. Wright's "expertise that’s often obscure and even esoteric".

Atkins does go on to explain that "large swathes of the documents Dr. Wright said he would be relying on at trial contained anomalies that showed signs of deliberate manipulation."

He continues:  "On Wednesday, Dr. Wright and the court were shown a pre-Bitcoin network analysis and modeling paper containing connections to Bitcoin theory. COPA says this document is manipulated because the metadata shows its ‘last editing duration’ exceeds its ‘last saved’ date. Dr. Wright gave the same explanation he had given multiple times earlier in the week: he works in a Citrix virtual environment, and inconsistencies like that are a natural consequence of working in that way. He explains that these virtual environments allow multiple users to work simultaneously on the same ‘system,’ much like Google Docs does today. In that context, ‘saving’ can’t be thought of in the same way it does when working solely on physical machines.

"Dr. Wright also took this chance to point out—as he did on his first day on the stand—that none of the experts appointed in this case have the expertise to draw these conclusions."

Calvin Ayre is among the biggest backers of the BSV Blockchain, which he believes to operate the way the original BTC was intended. He has long supported Dr. Wright based on his own internal findings. 

"For anyone new looking around for information on the Satoshi Trial (COPA v Wright) I will repeat that I have spent millions of dollars the last 10 years and all evidence I could find points to Craig being Satoshi and nobody else. I was also able to disprove all the COPA driven misinformation. Craig will win the COPA trial because he is Satoshi. This is going to change a lot of things going forward. The trick for everyone who can see this is to figure out where this goes now and be their first. Business 101 is being early to see the 'no shit Sherlock' moment."

Strap in Folks, whatever the outcome, we won't know for another five weeks as that's the expected period of time this trial is expected to last.

Bitcoin is one of the most used methods of transferring funds to and from online gambling websites. 

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com