These are quite dangerous and desperate people, so I'm still exploring ways I can fight this while keeping my anonymity. It's looking like it may actually be possible, but we'll have to see about that.
Cøbra, of course there are many people offering their opinions on this particular point. Some are urging you to reveal yourself; others, to the contrary.
More as a message to them—to
all of them, I will tell you what you already damn well know: Because you
are anonymous,
only you have the requisite information for making decisions about how to handle this.
It is obvious that if you dox yourself, then even after you win the case, you will still suffer significant detriments from disclosure of your identity: Irreparable loss of the privacy which is of inestimable value in itself, risk of exposure to harassment or worse from random nutjobs (as Jameson Lopp suffered a few years ago), the likelihood of further pseudolegal attacks from a party who has publicly declared that, in substantial essence, he will maliciously abuse legal process to “destroy” people who don’t dance to his tune—these are only a few of the detriments that immediately come to mind. Only you know yourself and your life. Only you know how well you can handle this, in the long term.
On the flipside, perhaps you may have a strategic advantage. CSW and his lawyers have no significant information about the party whom they have sued. Legalities aside, as a practical matter, there are personal characteristics and qualities which can make a difference, sometimes a decisive difference, in the course of litigation. That is not the theory of how the law is supposed to work; but that is how it
does work, for better or for worse.
An intelligent lawyer (which CSW lacks) usually tries to keep such factors in mind
before suing—perhaps sometimes only to avoid being shocked by an unexpectedly formidable adversary. In the same vein, an unethical lawyer representing a malicious plaintiff may want to know whether or not he is picking on someone whom he can bully and manipulate in court. I know that hypothetically, if I were to out myself, many people would be surprised... Maybe you, too. Either way. At this point, only you have the knowledge that is
necessary to evaluate that. In a word, only you know your own profile.
Overall, it is grossly unjust for you to be placed in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position whereby to defend yourself legally from a malicious abuse of process, you may need to incur on yourself the aforesaid detriments which, thereafter, the court cannot cure. I hope that a way can be found to avoid that dilemma, which CSW is deliberately,
manipulatively exploiting.
On a personal note, in my own experience, the road to Hell is paved with the broken corpses of martyrs; and by standing up for my own principles and ideals with blind intransigence, I have sometimes so damaged my same principles and ideals as to constitute a betrayal motivated by loyalty. It is a trap for activist personalities. Only you
can know yourself well enough to avoid such things.
P.S., on another note, I may owe you a public apology for a few of the harsh statements that I have made to you before. No matter how you may reasonably choose to handle the above issue, the way that you are standing up for the truth and for Bitcoin speaks as to your character.