The final trial between computer scientist Craig Steven Wright (CSW) and crypto podcaster Peter McCormack took place in London on Dec. 20 and ended, indicating a potential victory for McCormack.
The judge’s final decision is said to be published on Dec. 21. However, the judge said that CSW had been dishonest with his claims to be Satoshi, which is why McCormack should be held responsible for paying the £1 fee decided on earlier.
Reporting from BitMex Research who attended the trial stated that the judge gave an initial view that “since CSW was dishonest, CSW should pay any costs currently being decided on.”
Further, BitMex Research further paraphrased the judge’s statement documenting that, “Peter said CWS was a fraud. I found CSW was dishonest. That is therefore relevant.”
The £1 fee
A hearing took place on 23, 24, and 25 May as a part of the process, where the judge recognized that McCormack posted 16 Tweets that caused serious harm to CSW’s reputation and his claims to be Satoshi.
However, the court also decided that the evidence pointed out that CSW was not Satoshi himself. Since CSW was claiming an identity on false evidence, McCormack’s harm was only nominal to his reputation. The hearing document states:
“Because he [CSW] advanced a deliberately false case and put forward deliberately false evidence until days before trial, he will recover only nominal damages.”
In compensation for the nominal damages dealt by McCormack, the court ruled that McCormack should compensate the damage to CSW by paying a sum of £1.
According to some sources, McCormac had already paid another £100,000 worth of costs to CSW, even before the trial started.
The background
The legal dispute between the sides started brewing in 2015 when CSW made public claims to be the infamous founder of Bitcoin (BTC), Satoshi Nakamoto.
Crypto Twitter reacted by rejecting CSW’s claims. CSW responded to these rejections by opening a defamation lawsuit, claiming that McCormack led crypto Twitter into rejecting his claims, thereby harming his reputation. CSW requested the court to assess the costs of the damages McCormack dealt to CSW’s reputation and force McCormack to compensate.
CSW had filed the same lawsuit against the crypto influencer Hodlonaut back in 2019, which concluded with Hodlonaut’s victory on Sept. 20. CSW, on the other hand, asked for a second hearing to reconsider the decision and insisted on his claims to be Satoshi himself.
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