WikiLeaks has taken a new step to protect the Afghan War Logs from censorship by immortalizing them on the Bitcoin blockchain. Using the Ordinals protocol, this historical information will be immutable and accessible for future generations.
Afghan War Logs immortalized on Bitcoin
The Afghan War Logs, a collection of 76,911 internal U.S. military and government documents, were released by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2010. These documents reveal shocking details about the Afghanistan war, including civilian casualties and controversial interrogation methods. Despite their public availability, there remains a risk that this information will be suppressed.
To counteract this, the full Afghan War Logs will be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain via the Ordinals protocol. This process uses a tool called OrdinalsBot and will launch on December 5 via ProjectSpartacus.org. This will guarantee that even if the WikiLeaks website goes offline or other archives are attacked, the information will still be accessible.
According to Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother and chair of the Assange Campaign, this approach is an “incredible use case” for the Ordinals protocol, stressing that distributing this information across nodes worldwide helps keep it permanently available.
Blockchain as a shield against censorship
The process of storing the Afghan War Logs on the blockchain is extensive. Each of the 76,911 documents is individually “engraved” on satoshis (the smallest units of Bitcoin), making the data immune to tampering or deletion.
Toby Lewis, founder of OrdinalsBot, calls this one of the most complex projects to date. The collection will also be available on the new Ordinals marketplace Trio starting December 12. While this project is not directly raising funds for Assange’s legal fight, it highlights Bitcoin’s strength as a censorship-resistant platform.
Assange and the History of Bitcoin
Assange’s connection to Bitcoin dates back to the cryptocurrency’s early days. WikiLeaks began accepting Bitcoin donations back in 2010, which helped to raise the digital asset’s profile. However, this move was not without controversy; even Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto warned at the time that the attention WikiLeaks brought “could jeopardize the project.”
Despite these challenges, Bitcoin has played a crucial role in WikiLeaks’ survival. During a global bank blockade, Bitcoin acted as a “proof of concept” for Nakamoto’s vision of a censorship-resistant currency. According to Shipton, this perfectly illustrates Bitcoin’s strength as a means of protecting and disseminating information.
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