It is apparent that in the development of his account to be Satoshi, Dr Wright has largely based it on known facts about Satoshi’s work and communications. However, there are instances where Dr Wright’s deductions about what he thinks happened have turned out to be wrong and some concern his assertions about transfers of Bitcoin.

In a fiery interview with GQ magazine conducted by Stuart McGurk with Dr Nicholas Courtois, Dr Wright asserted that he (as Satoshi) had only transferred bitcoins to Hal Finney and Zooko “full stop” {{L14/67/1} at 5:17-5:21}. Notwithstanding what Mr Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn had said in his witness statement that he never received any bitcoin from Satoshi, in his cross-examination on Day 7 Dr Wright again asserted that Satoshi had transferred bitcoins to Zooko:

“157:18 Q. And in reality, Satoshi never transferred any Bitcoin to

19 Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn, did he?

20 A. Actually, I did. Zooko was very interested because he

21 had been working on a similar thing, MojoNation,

22 beforehand.

23 Q. So he's wrong in his witness statement when he says he

24 didn't receive Bitcoin from Satoshi, is he?

25 A. He is.”

I have set out my assessment of Mr Wilcox-O’Hearn as a witness above. His evidence in cross-examination on Day 14 on the matter of whether Satoshi had transferred bitcoins to him was as follows. Backed up by the detail in his witness statement, I found his evidence entirely credible:

“80: 4 Q. Right. You see, what I suggest is that you're in fact

5 mistaken about that, and given what you've accepted is

6 your very keen interest in Bitcoin, your perception that

7 it was a revelation, that you were entranced and sucked

8 in pretty early, that the reality is that you did in

9 fact get more involved than you now remember: you

10 downloaded, you ran the software and you were sent some

11 Bitcoin by Satoshi.

12 A. No, by the time of -- like I mentioned earlier, Bitcoin

13 had gone from a curiosity to a breakthrough in my mind

14 at some point, and Satoshi was totally my hero. Still

15 is. I love what Satoshi means to me and to people. So

16 if I had ever gotten bitcoins from Satoshi, I would

17 definitely remember that. But again, my earliest use of

18 Bitcoin was OTC trading. You know, "OTC" means "over

19 the counter". I forget what it was called, but there

20 was this thing where people could post, if they wanted

21 to buy or sell bitcoins, and then they could get each

22 other's contact from it. That's my earliest memory of

23 using Bitcoin for anything myself.

24 Q. So, again, I suggest that the fact that you regarded

25 Satoshi as your hero, it beggars belief that you didn't

81: 1 get more involved at the very earliest stage.

2 A. You underestimate my laziness and procrastination.”

This was not the only error in Dr Wright’s prior assertions about Satoshi Nakamoto’s transfer of bitcoins. Satoshi made transfers of Bitcoin to Nicholas Bohm, a former partner of Norton Rose who had developed an interest in cryptography {Bohm1 [5] {C/10/2} and Bohm1 [15] {C/10/4}}. Satoshi would have known of those transfers, but it would seem that Dr Wright only became aware of Mr Bohm’s dealings with Satoshi when COPA served Mr Bohm’s witness statement in these proceedings. When challenged on this point on Day 7, his answer presented a very striking contrast with the definitive statement in the GQ interview (to Hal Finney and Zooko “full stop”)”

“158: 1 Q. And of course Satoshi transferred Bitcoin to Nick Bohm,

2 but you weren’t to know that at that point, were you?

3 A. Oh, of course I did. But do I remember people? No.

4 I transferred to a lot of people in 2009.”

It was striking that Dr Wright could not point by name to any of the “lot of people” to whom he was now saying Satoshi had transferred Bitcoin.

“158:23 Q. Can I just stop you. You have made the point – you’ve

24 made your point.

25 Let me ask this question then. You’ve said that you

159: 1 transferred Bitcoin as Satoshi to hundreds of people.

2 Can you name some of those to whom you transferred

3 Bitcoin whose receipt of Bitcoin from Satoshi is not in

4 the public domain?

5 A. God knows. I don’t remember everyone now.

6 Q. So you can’t remember any of the hundreds?

7 A. No.

8 MR JUSTICE MELLOR: Not even one?

9 A. I don’t know who is and isn’t in the public domain.

10 I know the funding stuff I did for Gavin, but he’s

11 talked about that now. But, no, it had no value at the

12 time, my Lord. I just sent whoever asked, and most of

13 them were pseudonymous. The majority of people on

14 the forum didn’t actually use their name.”

Dr Wright’s evidence about a transfer to Zooko was untrue, and his evidence in response to the fact that Mr Bohm had received bitcoin from Satoshi was, in my judgment, yet further fabrication. These matters provide further proof that he is not Satoshi.