Julian Assange received support from the Bitcoin community, which helped ensure that the founders of WikiLeaks returned to Australia safely and debt-free.
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks and a well-known supporter of free expression, has a close relationship with the Bitcoin community.
The distinctive qualities of Bitcoin BTC$61,012 as a cryptocurrency and its active community have helped both him and WikiLeaks.
The mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship between Assange and WikiLeaks has been instrumental in enhancing the significance of Bitcoin and ensuring its continued existence and growth.
After a 14-year legal fight and five years in prison, Julian was finally liberated on June 25. The conflict was resolved when Julian struck a deal with U.S. officials, admitting guilt in return for not being extradited to the U.S. and getting credit for time spent in the U.K., which finally resulted in his release.
WikiLeaks and its creator have received much support from the Bitcoin community since their objectives are similar, as Joshua Bate, the founder of DeSciWorld and a key member of AssangeDAO. He declared, “They are both equally dangerous to an authoritarian regime and closely intertwined.”
“WikiLeaks enables free information exchange, [and] Bitcoin allows more free value exchange,” according to Bate. Thus, “Bitcoin and WikiLeaks both fight against censorship.” Because of this, the Bitcoin community has continued to support Assange in his legal battles.
An anonymous 8 BTC payment, which has almost entirely paid off Julian’s $520,000 obligation for his repatriation to Australia, is a recent example of this solidarity.
Assange took a private plane to return to Australia as no commercial airline would take him as a passenger. Stella, Assange’s wife, requested an urgent gift to help pay for the plane’s expenses.
A few hours later, Assange arrived in Australia debt-free thanks to a Bitcoin gift.
As Satoshi Nakamoto asked, Assange defended Bitcoin.
Although WikiLeaks was established in 2006, it wasn’t until 2010—the year it released the controversial film known as “Collateral Murder”—that it gained prominence as a news organization. The video revealed two Iraqi Reuters journalists among the eighteen people shot and killed by a U.S. Army chopper in Baghdad.
WikiLeaks received a lot of attention due to the film, which led to extensive efforts by British and American authorities to shut down the nonprofit group.
WikiLeaks’ operations were declared unlawful by the U.S. State Department during the presidency of Barack Obama. Due to this action, WikiLeaks was financially blocked by PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Bank of America, and Western Union, threatening the organization’s survival and reducing donations.
WikiLeaks desperately searched for a way to pay for donations—especially one that authorities would not block. A Bitcoin developer contacted WikiLeaks on November 10, 2010, proposing to accept cryptocurrencies as payment.
The anonymous developer of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, begged WikiLeaks not to utilize Bitcoin for donations since doing so would draw unnecessary attention to the young technology.
Nakamoto thought the program was still in its early stages and that the cryptocurrency would receive too much attention because of its affiliation with WikiLeaks.
Assange acknowledged in 2014 that he had granted Nakamoto’s request to hold off on adopting Bitcoin until it was “more established.”
However, WikiLeaks’ acceptance of Bitcoin was made public by a P.C. World story. Nakamoto was not pleased with the sudden interest in Bitcoin because he thought it might endanger the network. Nakamoto wrote on the Bitcoin Talk forum on December 11, 2010:
“WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
Assange fulfilled his “promise,” but Nakamoto abandoned the project not long after Bitcoin gained traction.
Assange and WikiLeaks were still having financial difficulties and had few money-raising alternatives. WikiLeaks was forced to break the financial ban in June 2011 by creating a Bitcoin address to accept payments in Bitcoin. This is a pivotal choice for WikiLeaks’ survival.
WikiLeaks has been able to continue because of the uncensorable qualities of Bitcoin, which permit money to come in without fear of disruption or seizure.
In the first week, the charity received 171 BTC, and a secure funding channel was established that is still operational today.
WikiLeaks presented a convincing use case for Bitcoin overnight.
One of the nonprofit organization’s best choices was to start accepting Bitcoin payments.
Even though Assange was embroiled in ongoing legal disputes, he acknowledged that WikiLeaks had adopted Bitcoin due to the U.S. government’s financial embargo.
Assange stated that he and WikiLeaks profited from the 50,000% return on their Bitcoin investments on October 14, 2017. At that point, the charity had already received 4,000 BTC. A few months later, Bitcoin reached $20,000 thanks to the 2017 bull market.
Did Assange find it all worthwhile?
The costs of Assange and his family’s courageous defense of free expression have been high.
Shortly after WikiLeaks’ widespread exposure in August 2010, Assange was the subject of an arrest order filed by Swedish authorities due to claims of his alleged sexual misbehavior.
After leaving Sweden, Assange applied for refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For seven years, Assange could not leave the Ecuadorian Embassy’s grounds. A change in Ecuador’s government brought about the removal of Assange’s refuge.
The hacker was taken into custody by British police and held for five years in the high-security Belmarsh Prison, often known as Guantánamo Bay.
Assange was still in danger of being extradited to the United States, where he might suffer the harshest penalty. Like other whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Assange’s life took a dramatic turn after disclosing highly classified information about the government.
Was Assange’s suffering worthwhile?
AssangeDAO member and CEO of Nym Harry Halpin said that society needs to learn more from Assange’s hardships.
He did, however, note that war crimes and the suppression of truth are now regular subjects in parliamentary discussions, on daytime T.V., and even on YouTube podcasts, all thanks to Assange’s work.
“Ultimately, we must use Julian’s partial triumph as a catalyst to create more powerful communication and resistance structures.”
Assange wants to stay out of the spotlight and enjoy his privacy since he arrived in Australia. In the interim, the founder of WikiLeaks intends to “enjoy his freedom,” according to his wife Stella, who also urged the media to pressure the U.S. government to reveal information on the criminal case against her husband.
One of the terms of the plea agreement with U.S. authorities states that “Julian isn’t allowed to request freedom of information [or] make information requests [to] the U.S. government,” as she said in her most recent public appearance.
She urged the public to pressure American authorities to explain their actions while also stressing that other individuals retain this authority.