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A widely-awaited High Court trial to determine a computer scientist's claim to be the inventor of the bitcoin digital currency will hear evidence of forgery and fraudulent behaviour, a judge ruled today.

Accepting an application to amend particulars of claim inCrypto Open Patent Alliance v Dr Craig Steven Wright, Mr Justice Mellor gave a US-based group of cryptography activists permission to plead that 50 documents purporting to show the development of bitcoin are forgeries. He rejected an argument from Dr Craig Wright, who claims to be bitcoin inventor 'Satoshi Nakamoto', that the late amendment would derail the trial's timetable.

The 'identity issue' trial is widely seen as the high point in a blizzard of litigation arising from the claim by Wright, an Australian computer scientist resident in England, to be the author of the 2008 white paper 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'. The identity of the author or authors has been the subject of speculation since 'Satoshi Nakamoto' announced he was moving on from the project in 2011. 'Satoshi's' untouched early-minted store of bitcoin would be worth about $35bn today.

In the London trial, claimant the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) seeks to prove that Wright is not Satoshi while Wright as a claimant will seek to prove to a group of bitcoin developers that he is.A two-month hearing is due to open on 15 January; the court has already made several rulings, including one for security of costs, in the run-up to a case management hearing scheduled for December.

Discussing the latest application to amend particulars of claim, Mellor observed: 'This is an unusual case. Furthermore, it has reached an unusual stage.' Ruling in all but one point for COPA, he said the group should have the opportunity 'to press the essential feature of their claim: that Dr Wright's claim to be Satoshi is fraudulent and, consistenly with that, the documents he relies upon in support of that claim have been forged.'

Meanwhile, the judge continued, Wright must have the opportunity 'to explain why COPA's challenges to his documents are wrong'.He said he would exercise his case management powers to ensure the trial proceeds in January 2024.

Read more from the original source:

High Court agrees to amend particulars of claim in January hearing ... - Law Gazette