The following is a guest post by Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo Blockchain.
Julian Assange was released from prison in June, but his first court appearance did not occur until early that month. He gave evidence about the psychological impact of his imprisonment to the Law and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe's Parliament in Strasbourg, France, which includes parliamentarians from 46 European countries. .
“Let me be absolutely clear: I am not free today because the system worked,” Assange began his speech at the Council of Europe earlier this month. “I'm free today because, after years in prison, I pled guilty to journalism. I pled guilty to soliciting information from a source.”
“Pleaded guilty to soliciting information from a source.” said Assange. “I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was.”
From 2012 to 2017, Assange lived in the Eucadre embassy in London, where he was granted asylum. From 2019 to 2024, he was held in a maximum-security British prison. “It strips away a person's sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of being,” he said with a shudder. He apologized for his “sluggish words” and “Unsophisticated presentation”
Mr Assange admitted:
“I'm not yet ready to talk about what I've endured, the constant struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally.”
The Parliament of the Council of Europe has released a report into Assange's imprisonment, calling him a “political prisoner”. They expressed concern about his treatment, saying the charges brought against him by the United States were “disproportionate” and “serious.”
The relationship between Assange and Bitcoin is clear
WikiLeaks began accepting Bitcoin after global financial institutions placed WikiLeaks in what its founder called a “financial blockade.” that It started with PayPalinitially said he had received a letter from the State Department, but later corrected that story, saying, made a decision After seeing the intentionally misleading letter the State Department sent to PayPal.
And then one institution after another blocked WikiLeaks from their platforms. Visa, Mastercard and Bank of America blocked the donation. The institutions cited their “terms of service” as the basis for their decisions to block donations.
Assange as public enemy number one
WikiLeaks committed a crime against the powers that be by releasing more than 250,000 US State Department cables it received from former Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, now known as Chelsea. WikiLeaks also highlighted CIA infiltration of French political parties, spying on French and German leaders, and injecting software into smart TVs, cars, and iPhones.
Parts of the international community spoke out against the blockade. The United Nations High Commissioner condemned the action. So did the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Although the US State Department has declared WikiLeaks' actions illegal, it is not illegal in the US to release classified documents. No charges were filed. In the end, WikiLeaks achieved some small victories. Iceland's Reykjavik District Court has imposed a block on credit card donations to WikiLeaks and ruled that the block should be lifted within two weeks.
“This is an important victory against Washington's attempts to silence WikiLeaks,” WikiLeaks founder Assange said in a statement about the Iceland victory. “We will not be silent. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. It is doubly wrong when it is done outside the rule of law. The people involved in the WikiLeaks censorship attempt are Little by little, you will find yourself on the wrong side of history.”
Assange sees Bitcoin as an important innovation, but believes other blockchain use cases are just as important, if not more so.
Assange is a man who turns out to be too dangerous to the military-industrial complex to walk freely on the streets. Because people trusted him with their secrets. It's a miracle he's alive. Assange also played a major role in the emergence of Bitcoin.
Assange's views on Bitcoin and blockchain
Mr Assange was released from prison in June and plunged into a new world order of lockdowns, inflation and war in continental Europe. In a press conference, Assange lamented how much ground has been lost in the fight for freedom since his imprisonment. But it's not all bad news. Public awareness is also increasing. And at the same time, Bitcoin's integration into society will only increase over time.
Nation-states such as Bhutan and El Salvador own Bitcoin. The United States may not be far behind. There is talk about hyperbitcoinization and Bitcoin standards. But this may not be what Assange is most interested in about blockchain. At the AMA, he revealed that he sees great potential in blockchain and journalism. In fact, blockchain could save us from memory holes.
Assange said in a Reddit AMA:
“The true innovation of Bitcoin is that it provides globally verifiable evidence to the public at a given time. The entire system is built on that concept, and many other systems are built on it as well. Yes, blockchain can reveal history and break Orwell's dictum, 'He who controls the present controls the past, and he who controls the past controls the future.'
Assange credits Bitcoin with helping him overcome the extrajudicial bank blockade in the United States.
