In a bold and unprecedented move, an anonymous activist group has announced that they are using the Bitcoin blockchain to store and disseminate classified US war logs that expose the atrocities committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group claims that they are doing this to protest the unjust imprisonment of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who first published these documents in 2010.
The project is called ‘Project Spartacus’ which intend to use the bitcoin blockchain as a permanent and censorship-resistant storage for the thousands of classified documents. The project’s website states that ‘Project Spartacus’ is inspired by the legendary gladiator who led a slave uprising against the Roman Empire, and by the courage and sacrifice of the whistleblowers who risked their lives to expose the truth.
The project claims that by embedding the Afghan War logs into the bitcoin blockchain, they will ensure that the documents will remain accessible and verifiable for generations to come, regardless of any attempts to erase or manipulate them by governments or corporations.
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The project’s website also provides instructions on how to download, verify and view the documents using a bitcoin node and a web browser. The project encourages anyone who supports their cause to donate bitcoin to their address, which will be used to cover the fees of embedding the data into the blockchain. The project also invites other whistleblowers and journalists to contact them if they have any sensitive information that they want to preserve and share with the world.
The project has already received some support and criticism from various quarters. Some praised the project as a noble and innovative way of safeguarding the historical record and honoring the whistleblowers, while others denounced it as a reckless and illegal act that could endanger national security and put lives at risk. Some also questioned the technical feasibility and sustainability of the project, given the limited space and high costs of storing data on the bitcoin blockchain.
The project’s website does not reveal any information about the identity or location of its members, nor does it specify when or how they obtained the Afghan War logs. WikiLeaks, the original publisher of the documents, has not commented on or endorsed the project. The US government, which has been pursuing legal action against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for over a decade, has not issued any statement or response to the project either.
The group, which calls itself “The Cypherpunks”, has released a statement explaining their motivation and methodology. They say that they are inspired by Assange’s vision of using cryptography to create a more transparent and accountable world, and that they are using Bitcoin as a tool to achieve this goal.
The group says that they have encoded the war logs into hexadecimal data, which can be embedded into Bitcoin transactions as “OP_RETURN” outputs. These outputs are not spendable, but they are permanently recorded on the blockchain, which is a distributed ledger that records every transaction ever made with Bitcoin. The group says that they have created a website that allows anyone to access and decode these outputs, and to verify their authenticity by comparing them with the original WikiLeaks files.
The group claims that by using Bitcoin, they are making the war logs immune to censorship, deletion, or alteration. They say that anyone who runs a Bitcoin node, which is a software that validates and relays transactions on the network, is effectively hosting a copy of these documents on their computer. The group also says that anyone who mines Bitcoin, which is a process that secures the network and creates new coins, is indirectly contributing to the preservation of these documents.
The group says that they have chosen to use Bitcoin because it is the most secure, decentralized, and resilient cryptocurrency in existence. They say that Bitcoin is designed to resist any form of coercion, corruption, or compromise, and that it is protected by a global network of thousands of nodes and millions of users. The group says that they trust Bitcoin more than any other platform or institution to safeguard the truth about US war crimes.
The group says that they are not affiliated with any organization or ideology, and that they are acting solely out of their conscience and conviction. They say that they are not seeking fame or profit, and that they are willing to face any consequences for their actions. They say that they are doing this for the sake of justice, freedom, and peace.
The group says that they are not done yet, and that they plan to continue encoding and uploading more classified documents to the Bitcoin blockchain in the future. They say that they have access to a vast trove of information that exposes the corruption and criminality of the US government and its allies. They say that they will not stop until Assange is freed, and until the world knows the truth.