WikiLeaks and the Mystery of Bitcoin

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange discussed the platform's resurgence in a July 20 interview, presenting new evidence of U.S. Secret Service surveillance of the German government on a scale never seen in peacetime.

'Overwhelmed by material'

Talking about the increase in the amount of materials released in the past few months, Assange stressed that his website has never stopped publishing documents, but some of them (such as the Syrian issue) are not to the taste of Western media. In addition, since the conflict with the US government in 2010, the banking system has blocked it, resulting in a financial loss of more than 90%, so new measures need to be taken to face the difficulties, including facing the problem of being sued (already won).

Assange has long been a Bitcoin enthusiast, particularly interested in Bitcoin’s blockchain technology — though WikiLeaks has not accepted Bitcoin donations, per the advice of Satoshi Nakamoto, who believed such an interest could be destructive to the fledgling company. Nakamoto wrote in 2010:

“This project needs to grow gradually so that the software gets better as it goes forward. I would like to urge WikiLeaks not to try to accept Bitcoin.”

However, after the first world currency rush, WikiLeaks began accepting donations in Bitcoin in June 2011.

During the bank's blocking phase, the donations received enabled the website to successfully launch a new generation of testing systems in May, which has confidentiality, operation and legal protection considering national security procurement. This in turn has led to the current surge in material submissions, resulting in Assange's "flooding with materials". He added:

"The challenge this time, from an economic perspective, is whether we can make revenue proportional to the amount of material we have to process."

WikiLeaks Bitcoin and Litecoin donation page

German government surveillance

The most notable recent revelation is evidence that US intelligence agencies had gathered data on 125 top German politicians and officials over decades, and Assange believes that whenever that information was leaked to journalists, the Mekal group would have been brought down.

Among the materials released so far are German politics, European policy and economic events. Assange claims that by observing how information is transmitted (and what information is transmitted), it is possible to understand what the political priorities of the US government are.

The intelligence intercepted and published so far comes from the "executive version" of Global Signals Intelligence Highlights, which shows, for example, how much the US government values ​​Germany's intention to further establish good relations with China in the International Monetary Fund. Based on this information, measures can be taken to prevent these things, because the United States sees China's help for Europe as a threat to its superpower status - even though China buys US Treasury bonds and recognizes the status of the US dollar. Assange said:

"The decision has been made: kill the Mekal Project before it can be implemented."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Thai police deny using the surveillance camera

This week, Thai police also denied using surveillance software, which WikiLeaks revealed cost Thailand 100 million baht in 2013. A government representative did not deny purchasing the software to monitor people. However, he said it would not be used to monitor Thai citizens because it was illegal and against national policy.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the software, provided by an Italian hacking group, is capable of hacking into Bitcoin accounts and some digital wallet accounts.