Three important witnesses who had early contacts with the developer of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, have testified in the ongoing dispute between Craig Wright and the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). Among them were Mike Hearn and Martti Malmi, two of the original Bitcoin engineers, and Adam Back, the man behind Hashcash, the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that powers Bitcoin mining. The court also examined never-before-seen emails that Back and Nakamoto exchanged, providing fresh insight into their communication.
Witnesses Present Argument Craig Wright in court
Among the first to testify was Adam Back, the founder of Blockstream and the man behind Hashcash. Back released some emails exchanged with Nakamoto at the request of the Bird & Bird legal team. In one specific email, Nakamoto stated that Back’s contribution to the Bitcoin white paper would be acknowledged, particularly for the PoW idea that was adapted from Hashcash’s mechanism. The 2008 Bitcoin white paper contained this citation.
Back brought up the similarity between Nakamoto’s idea and Wei Dai’s B-Money during their email correspondence. Nakamoto agreed with this remark and decided to credit Dai in the white paper as a result. Back added to their exchange by sending Nakamoto a paper titled “micromint,” but he didn’t hear back from the person who created Bitcoin until the software was released. Martti Malmi also shared his thoughts, although he was first reluctant to take part. In addition to describing his early encounters with Nakamoto, Malmi also mentioned learning about Craig Wright in 2015.
Malmi, who was perplexed as to why Wright hadn’t chosen to sign a message instead of choose a simpler proof, criticized a convoluted piece that Wright had written, calling it “very lengthy, hard to follow, and hard to understand.” The computer scientist from Finland also noted Wright’s numerous legal challenges and his unannounced court appearances. Malmi added that even though Nakamoto was clearly aware of his Finnish ancestry, he was wrongly called Norwegian by Wright. Malmi vehemently denied all of Wright’s accusations made against him in response to multiple of his charges.
Star Trek-Inspired Technical Jargon
Another enlightening testimonies was that of Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn, who talked about his interactions with Wright, including a special dinner he had with Jon Matonis. At first, Hearn gave emails from Wright between 2014 and 2016 to the Bird & Bird law firm. The chance to meet in person came when Hearn accepted Matonis’s request to eat dinner with him and Wright following a conference, as he had no choice but to eat by himself.
Hearn used the dinner to test Wright’s assertions that he was Satoshi by asking inquiries that only the genuine Nakamoto could know the answers to. Hearn, on the other hand, deemed the endeavor “fruitless,” observing that “He failed all of my check questions,” and characterized the bulk of their exchange as meaningless banter. Even while Wright said he was Satoshi during the dinner, he apparently stammered over Hearn’s inquiries, showing a lack of comprehension. Hearn described Wright’s comments as “Star Trek-style technobabble,” pointing out a glaring gap in his understanding from what one would expect from the developer of Bitcoin. Wright’s arguments, Hearn remarked, were unclear and riddled with errors.
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