- The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has rejected Craig Wright’s settlement offer in the Satoshi Nakamoto lawsuit
- Wright’s offer came on the same day as a COPA statement explaining how forensic experts on both sides have agreed that Wright’s evidence has been fabricated
- The lawsuit, testing Craig Wright’s longstanding claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, is set to start on February 5
The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has rejected an offer from Craig Wright to settle the imminent Satoshi Nakamoto lawsuit, saying it wouldn’t resolve any of the outstanding issues. Wright made the offer yesterday, the same day that COPA released a statement which said that the forensic experts of both sides agreed that Wright’s second tranch of evidence, which he said was dated to October 2007, were “recent creations.” The lawsuit, filed in the UK, will test once and for all Wright’s long-standing claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
2021 Lawsuit Coming to Court
COPA sued Wright in April 2021 after Wright sent cease-and-desist letters to some of its member companies, telling them to stop hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper, which he said was his by copyright. COPA asked Wright to prove his claim by answering nine questions but Wright refused, leading to COPA filing the lawsuit with the aim of determining that Wright was not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper and therefore had no claim to the mantle of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Wright and his backers celebrated the lawsuit when it was filed, but things have only gone downhill since then: Wright’s Satoshi evidence was determined by COPA’s forensic analyst to contain over 400 forgeries, with Wright’s own analyst agreeing that the evidence had been tampered with, leading to COPA asking the judge to add another claim related to Wright being a serial forger. The judge in the case, Justice Mellor, allowed this, a claim which has the potential to see Wright end up with a contempt of court charge if found guilty.
Late last year, Wright asked for the case, which was due to begin last week, to be delayed after he claimed to have found two thumb drives full of evidence dating back to 2007 which he wanted admitted. COPA argued against this, saying that early analysis showed it to be likely more forgeries, but Justice Mellor allowed it, delaying the start of the case until February 5.
New Evidence, New Forgeries
True to COPA’s claim, the 97 new documents were found to be replete with forgeries, with COPA claiming that the documents were created following the receipt of the first report the prior September as Wright tried to cover the holes in his earlier evidence. Some of their discoveries included the use of ChatGPT and other software that didn’t exist in 2007, and some editing of files dated right up to December 1, 2023. Following the publication of this report, COPA released a statement which summarised their findings thus:
COPA has introduced new forensic evidence that definitively proves the inauthenticity of several documents that Craig Wright considers crucial to his claim that he is the founder of bitcoin. This was not only the conclusion of the expert COPA retained to forensically examine Wright’s documents, but the conclusion of the expert Wright retained as well.
Wright countered with an offer that many thought would go some way to bridging the gaps between the two parties, but it was nothing of the sort. Wright asked for all the claims dependent on the outcome of the COPA vs. Wright case, which include the passing off and pineapple hack cases, to be discontinued and all costs borne by each side as well as each side making a sizeable donation to charity.
In return, Wright offered to waive all database rights and copyrights related to BTC, BCH, and ABC databases; a license to use Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin ABC databases; and an acknowledgment that those databases are separate from his BSV vehicle and each other, stemming from Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision.
Importantly, the settlement makes no concessions on COPA’s actual claims: that Wright did not author the Bitcoin whitepaper, that he does not have copyright over the Bitcoin whitepaper, and that use of the Bitcoin whitepaper by COPA members will not result in legal action.
Genius Move or Hail Mary?
The rationale for the offer was taken differently by supporters of either camp: those opposing Wright saw this as a desperate attempt at reconciliation on the day that his last vestiges of evidence had been debunked as forgeries, while his supporters framed it as a genius move that proved COPA wasn’t about open patent development as they claimed.
Wright gave COPA seven days to respond but it did so within hours, offering a ‘thanks but no thanks on X:
It also would force us to accept that he is Satoshi. Take a look at COPA’s dissection of new documents Wright said would win him the case – which Wright’s own expert says are forged:https://t.co/B54YQLyNk0
— COPA (@opencryptoorg) January 24, 2024
With a week and a half left before trial, it remains to be seen if Wright returns with a new offer, but if he doesn’t then supporters of both sides will have to wait for the fireworks to start on February 5 at the High Court in London.
