According to CoinDesk, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright denied accusations of forgery during his cross-examination in a UK trial, where he claims to be the father of cryptocurrency. Wright is being sued by an alliance of crypto advocates and developers, who accuse him of committing forgeries on an industrial scale to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of bitcoin. During the trial, Wright denied forging various items he had previously presented as evidence that he is Satoshi, author of Bitcoin's foundational document, known as the white paper.
Wright attributed inconsistencies in his arguments to everything from self-plagiarizing and printing errors to the illnesses or deaths of various witnesses. When questioned about a research paper abstract called BlackNet, which he claims is from 2002 and shares language and concepts with the bitcoin white paper, Wright said he had reused his own words. He also defended his actions in a video where he obscured the address bar of a web browser while accessing an email account linked to Satoshi, blaming his multitasking skills.
The cross-examination probed key pieces of evidence presented by Wright, including credit card payments, emails, documents, and tweets that the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) says prove his claim of being Satoshi is a brazen lie. The trial is set to continue until at least February 13, with Judge James Mellor allowing COPA to examine new evidence submitted by Wright and question him on the material if necessary.