At Wright11 [545.f] {CSW/1/102}, Dr Wright stated that “BTC has limited the ability to use script by placing a maximum size and enforcing this rigorously. The limit of 520 bytes gives very little ability to add data”.

Dr Wright’s contention that “BTC” had “placed” a maximum size of 520 bytes was supported by a footnote which referenced {L9/247.1}, a version of the script.h file { version 0.10.0rc3 of the Bitcoin code: Wuille2 [7] {C1/2/2}} which at row 18 declared that a constant unsigned integer named “MAX_SCRIPT_ELEMENT_SIZE” had a value of 520 bytes. It is evident that at the time of writing his statement, Dr Wright thought that this change was “BTC” “placing” a maximum size on script.

In his second witness statement, Dr Wuille pointed out that the code referenced by Dr Wright did not introduce the 520 byte limit on script at all. Instead, Satoshi Nakamoto had introduced a limit on the size of data elements inside script in July 2010 and tightened it to 520 bytes in version 0.3.9 of the code on 15 August 2010 {Wuille2 [9] {C1/2/2}}. On 23 January 2013 the name MAX_SCRIPT_ELEMENT_SIZE was given to that limit {Wuille2 [11] {C1/2/3}}. Dr Wuille’s evidence to this effect was not challenged by Dr Wright and I accept it.

In cross-examination, Dr Wright confirmed he had read Dr Wuille’s statement but said ‘Do I remember all of it off the top of my head? No.’ It appears he sensed he was being trapped. It was pointed out to Dr Wright that he had not identified the commit that had named the limit MAX_SCRIPT_ELEMENT_SIZE, Dr Wright answered “No, but it was actually one that I was behind” {Day8/145:5}. Unfortunately for Dr Wright, that could not be true. The commit that had led to the introduction of the MAX_SCRIPT_ELEMENT_SIZE variable is at {D1/28/1}. It was made by Matt Corallo, aka TheBlueMatt on 23 January 2013. Dr Wright had to admit that he was not TheBlueMatt {Day8/145:10}. Indeed, TheBlueMatt is the tenth defendant in the BTC Core Claim, and one of the Developers.

Faced with the contradiction between Dr Wright’s written evidence that the 520-byte limit had been “placed” by BTC and the factual record identified by Dr Wuille that it had been imposed by Satoshi Nakamoto, Dr Wright swerved to a suggestion that the limit had been introduced “as a temporary measure” as a result of a “communication between multiple people, including Gavin and myself” {Day8/151:10-14}.

However, there is no record of such a conversation in the documents disclosed by Gavin Andresen in the Kleiman proceedings. In any event, the change had been implemented by Satoshi Nakamoto many months before he left the Bitcoin project. Satoshi could have, but did not, reverse the limit. Dr Wright’s explanation for this was evasive: “I was building other systems” {Day8/151:18}.