Adam Back Presents Unseen Satoshi Nakamoto Emails in Craig Wright Legal Battle

By: Isha Das

In a consequential development, Adam Back has presented previously unseen correspondence with Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in a legal battle against Craig Wright. This took place in the ongoing COPA vs. Craig Wright lawsuit on Feb. 22. Wright insists on being the creator of Bitcoin and seeks to enforce a copyright claim on the Bitcoin whitepaper and associated materials, which, according to COPA, can stifle Bitcoin's progress and jeopardize developer security.

The emails submitted as testimony reveal Nakamoto expressing readiness to release a whitepaper that references Back's precursor to Bitcoin - Hashcash and seeks confirmation about the citation accuracy. Another email includes Back directing Nakamoto to Wei Dai's B-Money proposal, which is subsequently cited in the final Bitcoin whitepaper. Notably, the correspondence calls into question Wright's prior assertion that B-Money was an inspiration for Bitcoin creation since Nakamoto was not aware of it until informed by Back.

Back's statements seeks to highlight potential contradictions detrimental to Wright's claims. He dismisses the idea that Nakamoto was influenced by B-Money, contradict's Wright's argument that he rejected any efforts to create digital currency, and relegates Wright's idea that Bitcoin relies on another algorithm apart from Hashcash. The court case, that kicked off on Feb. 5, has seen twists and turns, with Wright standing firm on his stance, denying allegations of forgery and plagiarism, even as multiple early Bitcoin contributors and COPA members offer testaments that dispute Wright's claim of being Bitcoin's creator.