COPA v Wright PTR

Hearing Date: 15 th December 2023

Approved Judgment

I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic. This judgment was handed down remotely by circulation to the parties' representatives by email. It will also be released for publication on the National Archives and other websites. The date and time for hand-down is deemed to be Wednesday 20 ^th December 2023 at 10.30am.

THE HON Mr Justice Mellor

Introduction

This is my judgment on the issues raised at the pre-trial review (PTR) held on Friday 15 ^th December 2023. The issues required a full day of argument (10am–4.50pm) so I announced the result of the principal applications at the conclusion of the hearing, indicating I would give my reasons in writing. This judgment contains those reasons and the results of the remaining applications.

The forthcoming trial consists of the main trial in the COPA claim and the trial of a preliminary issue in the BTC Core claim. For that reason it has been referred to as the Joint Trial. It concerns the ‘Identity Issue’ namely whether Dr Craig Wright is the pseudonymous ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ i.e. the person who created Bitcoin in 2009.

At this hearing, as the representation on the title page indicates, the parties before the Court fell into three distinct groups:

i) First, Dr Wright plus his associated companies which are claimants with him in the BTC Core claim.

ii) Second, COPA.

iii) Third, the Developers.

As the Developers submitted, COPA is an industry body representing a number of corporate entities which operate in the Bitcoin field (albeit I understand that individuals are able to join COPA). By contrast, the Developers contend that they are individuals who are or have been engaged in the maintenance and operation of Bitcoin in its various guises. Whilst the interests of the Developers may in very large part coincide with those of COPA vis-à-vis the Identity Issue, the Developers also contend that their interests cannot be assumed wholly to coincide with those of COPA and that therefore, the Developers are entitled to have their own representation not only at this hearing but also at the Joint Trial. This is an issue to which I must return later.

Subject to decisions to be made at the PTR, at the start of the hearing the Joint Trial of the Identity Issue was due to commence on Monday 15 ^th January 2024 with one day of opening submissions, followed by 4 days of judicial reading time, with approximately 20 days of evidence to start on Monday 22 ^nd January, concluding on Friday 16 ^th February 2024. There was then a perhaps overly generous period for preparation of written closings, leading to 4 days of oral closing submissions on 4 ^th–7 ^th March 2024.

The principal applications for determination at the PTR were (i) Dr Wright's application to rely on the Additional Documents (defined below) and (ii) his application to adjourn the trial. Before I turn to decide those and other applications, it is necessary to explain how these applications came about.

Relevant procedural history

I can take some of the detail from the agreed Case Summary.

In the COPA claim (commenced on 9 ^th April 2021), COPA seek a declaration (in effect) that Dr Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto. Dr Wright and two of his companies commenced the BTC Core claim on 29 ^th July 2022.

There are four actions involving Dr Wright as claimant or defendant. These include the COPA and BTC Core Claims and two other claims brought by Dr Wright (the Kraken and Coinbase Claims). These four claims were docketed to me in around January 2023. Somewhat later, the related action brought by Tulip Trading Ltd (another of Dr Wright's companies) against the Developers was also docketed to me. Since around June 2023, I have had significant involvement in the case management of these claims, resolving a variety of applications at numerous hearings.

The CCMC in the COPA claim took place before Master Clark on 1–2 September 2022, and directions were given down to the trial which was listed shortly thereafter to take place in January to February 2024.

Extended disclosure in the COPA claim took place on 7 March 2023. Both COPA and Dr Wright have produced further disclosure at various points.

In the COPA Claim, Dr Wright produced his list of Reliance Documents (i.e. the documents on which he would primarily rely to establish his claim to be Satoshi) on 4 April 2023, subsequently updated. 107 documents are listed. COPA produced its list of Challenged Documents (i.e. those documents the authenticity of which was challenged) on 5 May 2023.

My first real involvement came at a joint CMC in May 2023 in the Kraken and Coinbase claims. That led to the Joint CMC in the four actions held on 15 ^th June 2023 at which I defined the ‘Identity Issue’ and ordered that the main trial in the COPA Claim would serve as the preliminary issue trial in the BTC Core Claim (see [2023] EWHC 1893 (Ch)). The Kraken and Coinbase defendants and the corporate defendants in the BTC Core Claim agreed to be bound by the outcome of the Joint Trial (their interests being represented by COPA), whereupon the claims against them were stayed pending the Joint Trial, following the provision of security for costs for the Kraken and Coinbase defendants and my resolution of certain other issues (see [2023] EWHC 1894 (Ch)).

Thus, at that point, the Developers were brought into the COPA Claim for the first time. I set revised directions for the Joint Trial (then due to commence on 15 January 2024) including directions aimed at enabling the Developers to catch-up with the progress of the COPA claim. The Developers had only recently finished serving their Defences in the BTC Core claim, so they had work to do to try to catch up. Disclosure in the COPA Claim was provided to the Developers on 19 June 2023.

Dr Wright and COPA exchanged factual witness evidence on 28 July 2023, albeit that further witness statements have been served from time to time, by agreement or order. The Developers served a single witness statement on 13 October 2023.

COPA served their expert evidence on forensic document analysis on 1 September 2023 (three of the appendices followed on 4 September, the subject of an agreed extension). This was a substantial report from Mr Madden which, with appendices, amounts to around 900 pages of material.

At a further CMC in mid-September 2023, I heard a number of applications, including for Dr Wright to answer a consolidated RFI and his application to adduce expert evidence on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This resulted in my Judgment ( [2023] EWHC 2408 (Ch)) and order dated 3 October 2023 in which I set revised directions to trial.

A further hearing took place on 12 October 2023, where the principal application was COPA's application to plead additional allegations of forgery. I handed down a reserved judgment from that application on 24 October 2023, ( [2023] EWHC 2642 (Ch)), leading to my Order dated 31 October giving COPA permission to plead additional allegations of forgery against Dr Wright (limited to 50) and some further directions. All of these allegations originated from COPA's challenges to authenticity of documents disclosed by Dr Wright (i.e. the list of Challenged Documents served on 5 May 2023) but Madden 1 enabled COPA to plead forgery.

On 17 October 2023, I heard three applications in the BTC Core Claim, the principal applications being by the Developers for security for costs.

Meanwhile, on 8 September 2023, Dr Wright served his expert evidence on ASD, from Professor Fazel.

Expert evidence on digital currency technology was exchanged on 23 October 2023 and on the same day, Dr Wright served his expert evidence on forensic document analysis from Dr Placks. COPA served their reply expert report (Madden 2) on forensic document analysis on 17 November 2023.

COPA served its expert evidence on ASD on 21 November 2023 and on 30 November 2023 the...