For three years, our IP team at Bird & Bird have been leading a claim at the heart of cryptocurrency and token systems worldwide. On one side: a pretender to the throne of cryptocurrency, with a plan to take a grand prize. On the other, a coalition of individuals and companies, led by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance - a nonprofit organisation formed to promote openness in crypto generally, and represented by Bird & Bird.

The technology was Bitcoin, and the pretender is Craig Steven Wright. The prize he claimed was the legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto itself.

There are some positive lessons that come from this case, too, and the strongest is about the community that underlies the industry itself.

One is about the value and strength of the open-source community. The case might not have been successful without the efforts of the people who lent their time, money and effort to the cause of defeating the fraud. Nobody asked to be involved in the case, but when they were approached, many answered the call. Beyond that, the developers themselves must have undergone intense stress, being sued multiple times. Beyond that, there was nothing but the force of principle to make COPA, a nonprofit entity, step in and bring a defensive action.

Others who were not directly affected also gave up their time and effort to assist, providing copies of previously-secret documents, or donating their time to provide witness statements and attend trial to give evidence. That too is a stressful experience. Each of them was independent, but happened to have knowledge which exposed one lie, or several; one forgery, or several. If it wasn’t for the effort of a community, the case could have been over before it began.