The second week of the landmark COPA v. Craig Wright trial continued with intense courtroom drama, technical scrutiny, and—most notably—an unprecedented public revelation: over 260 never-before-seen emails from Satoshi Nakamoto, now accessible for the first time in history.
These newly released messages, published by Blockstream CEO Adam Back and early Bitcoin contributor Martti Malmi, offer a rare intellectual window into the mind behind Bitcoin. Meanwhile, in the UK High Court of Justice, three key witnesses—Mike Hearn, Howard Hinnant, and Zooko Wilcox—took the stand, each contributing critical insights into the ongoing dispute over whether Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto and whether he holds valid copyright to the Bitcoin whitepaper.
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The Core of COPA v. Craig Wright
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) filed this lawsuit to challenge Craig Wright’s long-standing claim of being Bitcoin’s creator. At stake is not just personal identity, but intellectual property rights—specifically, the copyright to Bitcoin’s foundational whitepaper.
COPA seeks a court order to prevent Wright from asserting authorship or enforcing alleged copyrights. The trial has evolved into a high-profile examination of digital legacy, cryptographic history, and the credibility of one of crypto’s most controversial figures.
Witness Testimony Day 14: Mike Hearn
Mike Hearn, a former Bitcoin core developer and direct email correspondent with Satoshi Nakamoto, was the first witness under cross-examination. His technical background includes roles at Oracle and R3, where he led platform engineering for Corda—a permissioned distributed ledger system used in enterprise finance.
During questioning, Hearn clarified that while Corda shares conceptual similarities with Bitcoin—such as decentralized consensus—it is not a direct competitor to Bitcoin SV (BSV), the blockchain promoted by Wright’s company, nChain.
A significant portion of Hearn’s testimony revolved around a 2013 dinner meeting involving Wright, Hearn, and Jon Matonis (former director of The Bitcoin Foundation). Hearn recalled that Matonis suggested Wright might be Satoshi and wanted Hearn to verify it. However, Hearn stated he saw no evidence supporting that claim and emphasized he did not sign any non-disclosure agreement during the meeting.
Wright’s legal team attempted to suggest that Hearn had sought out the meeting for intellectual property discussions. Hearn firmly denied this, stating his focus was always on core technology—not patents.
The Blocksize War and Bitcoin XT
Hearn also reflected on his departure from Bitcoin development in 2016—a period marked by the Blocksize War, a heated ideological split over Bitcoin’s scalability.
While Hearn supported larger blocks, he did not align with Wright or Roger Ver. Instead, he created Bitcoin XT, a proposed upgrade that would have increased block sizes from 1MB to 8MB initially, doubling every two years up to 8GB. Despite technical promise, Bitcoin XT failed to gain community support.
Hearn admitted that after its failure, he sold most of his Bitcoin holdings and stepped back from active development.
When asked by COPA’s counsel if he was Satoshi Nakamoto, Hearn laughed and responded: “No!”
Howard Hinnant: Debunking the ‘Project Chrono’ Claim
Next, Howard Hinnant—Ripple’s senior C++ developer and creator of a widely used date/time library—took the stand. Wright has previously claimed he used a library called “Project Chrono” as Satoshi when coding Bitcoin.
Hinnant clarified that Project Chrono, a physics simulation library developed later, did not exist in 2008–2009 when Bitcoin was created. He called it “highly, highly unlikely” that Wright used it.
He drew a vivid analogy: “It’s like starting with a P-51 Mustang and ending up with a Ford Mustang car.”
Hinnant acknowledged that a similarly named but unrelated library called Chrono existed around that time but noted it had minimal overlap with Project Chrono—mainly just the name. He stressed that building a date/time utility from a physics engine would be impractical compared to coding one from scratch.
This testimony dealt a significant blow to one of Wright’s technical narratives about his early development work.
Zooko Wilcox: Privacy, Cypherpunks, and Bitcoin’s Early Days
Zooko Wilcox, best known for co-founding Zcash and the Electric Coin Company, provided thoughtful testimony on cryptography’s role in society.
Although no longer CEO of Electric Coin Company, Wilcox remains on its board. He described Zcash’s mission as advancing privacy-preserving technologies through zk-SNARKs—zero-knowledge proofs that allow transaction verification without revealing details.
When asked about early interactions with Satoshi, Wilcox said he likely first encountered the Bitcoin whitepaper when it was posted to the cryptography mailing list on October 31, 2008. He did not recall receiving direct emails from Satoshi and denied ever receiving Bitcoin from him—“I absolutely would remember that,” he stated.
Wilcox also addressed the evolution of the term cypherpunk, noting it once described a loose community advocating cryptographic privacy but has since taken on broader political connotations. He affirmed his belief that “privacy is essential for free thought and an important part of stable democratic society.”
On why he didn’t engage more with early Bitcoin development? He joked: “You underestimate my laziness and procrastination.”
Historic Release: Never-Before-Seen Satoshi Emails
Beyond courtroom proceedings, the most significant development came outside the courthouse.
For the first time ever, over 260 emails written by or to Satoshi Nakamoto were made publicly available via repositories hosted by Adam Back and Martti Malmi. These messages span from 2008 to 2011 and reveal Satoshi’s philosophical depth, technical clarity, and strategic foresight.
One excerpt highlights Satoshi’s vision for decentralized money:
Historically, people have taken up scarce commodities as money… Most of the value comes from the value that others place in it… Until now, no scarce commodity that can be traded over a communications channel without a trusted third party has been available. If there is a desire to take up a form of money that can be traded over the Internet without a trusted third party, then now that is possible.
— Satoshi Nakamoto
Another email underscores the necessity of Proof of Work (PoW):
Proof of work is the only solution I’ve found to make peer-to-peer e-cash work without a trusted third party… Even if I wasn’t using it secondarily as a way to allocate the initial distribution of currency, PoW is fundamental to coordinating the network and preventing double-spending.
— Satoshi Nakamoto
These writings reinforce Satoshi’s original intent: creating a trustless, decentralized financial system powered by cryptographic consensus.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Why are these newly released Satoshi emails important?
A: They provide authentic insight into Satoshi’s thinking during Bitcoin’s creation—offering clarity on design choices like Proof of Work and decentralization. Their release helps preserve Bitcoin’s historical record.
Q: Does Craig Wright still claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto?
A: Yes. Despite mounting skepticism and contradictory evidence presented in court, Wright continues to assert he is Bitcoin’s creator and holds its intellectual property rights.
Q: What role does COPA play in this trial?
A: COPA aims to invalidate Wright’s copyright claims over the Bitcoin whitepaper to ensure open access to foundational blockchain innovations without fear of legal enforcement.
Q: Can these emails prove who Satoshi really is?
A: While they deepen our understanding of Satoshi’s mind, they do not definitively reveal his identity. However, they help assess whether Wright’s claimed knowledge matches what only Satoshi would know.
Q: How might this trial affect the broader crypto ecosystem?
A: A ruling against Wright could protect open-source development from fraudulent IP claims. Conversely, a win for Wright might embolden others to assert control over decentralized protocols.
What’s Next?
Craig Wright is scheduled to return to the stand—facing further scrutiny over his claims. As new evidence emerges and testimonies unfold, the world watches closely.
These revelations—both in court and in public archives—are more than legal footnotes. They are milestones in the ongoing story of decentralization, digital sovereignty, and technological truth.
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The legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto isn’t defined by identity—but by ideas. And thanks to this trial, those ideas are now more accessible than ever.