Blockchain
Based on a submit on the Reddit neighborhood r/bitcoin, an previous file was found that could be linked to Julian Assange, the whistleblower and founding father of Wikileaks. The encrypted 7zip file is within the output script from a transaction that befell on Jan. 5, 2017, and was mined at block peak 446,713.
Hypothesis Surrounds Goal of 7zip File Referred to as ‘Julianassange.Txt’ Present in Bitcoin Blockchain
Amid the hundreds of inscriptions added to the Bitcoin blockchain by way of Ordinals, a 7zip file probably linked to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was just lately found. A Reddit person underneath the title “u/sprxzk34620” knowledgeable the r/bitcoin subreddit of the invention. The submit acknowledged, “An encrypted 7zip file probably associated to Julian Assange is hidden within the Bitcoin blockchain.” The writer additionally famous that the file may very well be obtained by splicing the pubkhash seg of all of the output scripts from a selected transaction.
Screenshot from Redditor u/sprxzk34620.
“The encrypted 7zip file accommodates a file named ‘Julianassange.txt,’ however makes an attempt to crack the file have failed,” added the Reddit person. Commenters on the Reddit submit requested why Assange would add this to the Bitcoin blockchain and a few referred to hypothesis that he created a “lifeless man’s swap.” “It may very well be an encrypted hyperlink to the swap or information exposing secrets and techniques,” wrote one individual. Others have been uncertain and acknowledged {that a} zip file named “Julianassange.txt” feels like a hoax.
Coincidentally, the Jan. 5, 2017 transaction with the 7zip file occurred 5 days earlier than Assange learn the Bitcoin blockchain hash from block peak 447,506 in a recorded video. On the time, many believed that the whistleblower used this tactic to show he was alive. Regardless of being alive, Assange acknowledged that he was not okay whereas he was confined within the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
“Don’t take some cryptographic proof as proof that I’m okay,” he emphasised on the time. “I’m not. I’ve been held right here for eight years. I haven’t been okay the whole time.” Since then, Assange’s Ecuadorian asylum was revoked and he was arrested on April 11, 2019, when police raided the embassy. The contents of the 7zip file are unknown till somebody efficiently cracks it, as it might not belong to or be related to Assange in any respect.
The Reddit submit written by u/sprxzk34620 ended with a heated dialogue about whether or not including arbitrary knowledge to the Bitcoin blockchain by Ordinals was a reliable observe, because it has sparked controversy amongst some bitcoin advocates. “If everybody goes to submit silly cat JPEGs on the blockchain, I can hold shopping for new arduous drives for my node … F*** that sh**. Hold it compact of us,” one Redditor harassed.
