I’m curious about the context of Bitcoin in this divorce proceeding. What was at dispute?
The case I was consulted for was pretty bog standard “guy claims he lost his bitcoin in a hard drive reformat X years ago; wife claims BS and wants half of peak market value as of the highest historical price.”
Without getting into identifying details, I was able to use blockchain data to independently verify the guy’s claims. Traced transactions, found watermarking features tying them to specific wallet versions. Can’t actually prove that the keys were destroyed of course, but I did show the coins were being spent like crazy from one wallet on one machine, then all activity stopped right around when he claims he reformatted the computer, and the coins sit there on those same wallet outputs to this day, even with multiple market peaks in the intervening years, and many years between then and when he became aware of his wife’s intent to divorce.
That’s the way things go in court cases. Us software developers like to think that the law is a highly rational, proof based system. But in reality it basically comes down to “which story seems more believable” in the end, and being able to point to technical proof is the exception.
Sometimes a story is more believable because there is incontrovertible physical evidence. Normally in those circumstances it'd never go to the court room though -- plea deal in criminal cases, settlement in civil.
All of the qualifications you list amount to subjective evidence of clout in an obscure (to non-programmers) programming clique.
On the other hand, the certificate from a Blockchain University probably had a well defined curriculum and criteria for passing.
The expert witness called by the opposing side was someone I had never heard of, who had a certificate from "Blockchain University," and near as I can tell never worked as a software engineer anywhere, much less on bitcoin.
Guess which one of us nearly got disqualified for lack of credentials.
Expert witness testimony is such a joke.