Granath v Wright Day 5: Witness confirms Dr Wright added Bitcoin to BDO before 2008
The first week of Granath v Wright concluded on Friday, with the hearing of yet more testimony from former business associates of Dr Wright – all of whom said Wright had spoken to them about Bitcoin before it went public (but not always in the exact terms) and that they were not surprised when Dr. Wright was exposed as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2015.
By mid-week, Dr. Wright had passionately told the judge that he was choosing the “hard way” to prove his identity, but one that he felt was the only real way: by relying on his education and experience, his own. documents, his general work and the up to 100 people who can provide first-hand attestations to his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto. He spoke of this as his general ambition, but it appears the court is being treated to just that as he advances his defense against Granath.
There were three this morning, in addition to the two presented yesterday. Their testimony was much like the others, but with their own flair. They were very impressed with Dr. Wright’s professional and technical skills as an auditor, that they had spoken to him about the content of the Bitcoin White Paper before it was released (though not always in those terms), and that they and their colleagues were not surprised when Dr. Wright was revealed as Bitcoin’s creator.
Shoaib Yousuf, managing partner of the Boston Consulting Group in Dubai, testified that he was both a fellow student and a student of Dr. Wright’s at Charles Sturt University. In addition to his effusive praise of Dr. Wright’s broad knowledge base, Yousuf said he had visited Wright’s farm property in Port MacQuarie, the address where Wright has long been said to have retired to turn around and complete the development of Bitcoin. He said he was amazed at the office Dr. Wright had set up there: not only were there servers, it appeared to be a research library containing about 500 books.
Yousuf also said Dr Wright had spoken to him about the need for a digital platform for payments that could act as the de facto standard globally, citing the lack of Visa and Mastercard.
There was evidence from Neville Sinclair, a retired accountant and former partner at Grant Thornton who was at BDO at the same time as Dr Wright. His testimony was perhaps most notable because he corroborated a piece of bombshell evidence that emerged in the Kleiman trial, a set of handwritten meeting notes between Dr. Wright and his supervisor at BDO, in which the notes indicate that Wright presented something called “Timechain.” with a white paper to be published in 2008. Sinclair confirmed that this meeting took place and said that the supervisor (Alan Granger) came to Sinclair after the meeting to see if BDO or its clients might be interested in the project.
The trial has been full of these moments: confirmations of piecemeal evidence produced over the years, which Wright’s critics easily dismiss as forgeries or red herrings, but inside a courtroom when the same evidence is certified by independent professionals far away. from the cryptosphere they are much harder to ignore.
The Port MacQuarrie layout is one. The Alan Granger meeting notes are another, and perhaps the most important. But there were more as well. David Bridges, CIO of QDOS Bank in Australia, also involved with BDO, said Dr. Wright offered him a job setting up a Bitcoin Bank back in 2013, something that has long been part of Dr. Wright’s history.
Bridges also told the court that Dr Wright had presented the idea of a payment system without the need for a trusted intermediary to QDOS’s CEO and CFO: although they were interested, the bank did not have the resources to pursue it.
Max Lynam, Dr. Wright’s cousin, also testified. Lynam is the son of Donald Lynam, who pleaded not guilty in the Kleiman case. Max described his family as serving, in both the armed forces and the civil service, going back four generations. Max confirmed everything Donald Lynam had said there: that Wright asked the two of them to run Bitcoin’s earliest node on their family farm in 2008, which they did until the end of 2011. Lynam said he later learned that they had mined 6,500 Bitcoin during this period .
“I don’t remember there being anything specifically called the Bitcoin White Paper. Bitcoin was not a thing, white papers, in my mind were not a particular thing. But definitely with what is now referred to as the Bitcoin White Paper, there were definitely documents that was shared with me talking about the kind of technology and things Craig had been working on for Lasseters,” Lynam said.
“In my mind, it was just a repetition of online tokenization and financial trading and being able to track and authorize and validate transactions and so on. And so there were definitely newspapers talking about it. In my mind, it was repetition after repetition after repetition, ” he added.
Attny: You knew from 2013?
Max: No, I knew as always. We were just a family.
Attny: He was Satoshi?
Max: That he was the creator of bitcoin.
Attny: You knew from the 2013 dinner?
Max: I always knew.
Attny: No more questions.
Judge: Anything else?
Max: No— Kurt | GorillaPool.com 🍌🍌 (@kurtwuckertjr) 16 September 2022
Dr. Wright’s witnesses conclude today with one of the more affecting testimonies: Dr. Ami Klin, who was Dr. Wright’s autism expert in the Kleiman case, was in Norway to inform the court about autism and how it affects Dr. Wright’s behavior. It was important general knowledge – the court heard that those with autism lack the intuitive understanding of other people’s behavior and motivations that most people have. But it also provided crucial context to Dr. Wright’s character—which, given the trial is centered around a hate campaign engineered by Granath and directed at Dr. Wright—acted as a counterweight to much of what has been said about Dr. Wright in court in the court. the first couple of days.
Dr. Klin, who diagnosed Dr. Wright, said that he compensated for this lack of understanding in other people by acquiring knowledge in other areas such as geometry and literature, as many high-intellectuals with autism do.
Commenting on Dr. Wright’s background, he said that he has a history of being called many names and that much of what he did in his school years was compensation for that: “I would say that if someone did the same. now it will probably trigger the same feelings and experiences he had as a child and in his adolescence.”
Mans: this case is about defamation. A man who called Wright mentally ill and a fraud/fraudster. mind?
Klin: Autistics are not lonely by choice. CSW has a history of trying to connect with people through his interests, but he was almost always berated, mocked and bullied.— Kurt | GorillaPool.com 🍌🍌 (@kurtwuckertjr) 16 September 2022
Granath v Wright continues on Monday 19 September.
See: Granath vs Wright Satoshi Norway trial coverage Livestream Day 5
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