Blockchain
Based on a publish on the Reddit group r/bitcoin, an outdated file was found which may be linked to Julian Assange, the whistleblower and founding father of Wikileaks.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 occurred on Jan. 5, 2017, and was mined at block top 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 through Ordinals, a 7zip file probably linked to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was not too long ago found. A Reddit person underneath the title “u/sprxzk34620” knowledgeable the r/bitcoin subreddit of the invention. The publish said, “An encrypted 7zip file probably associated to Julian Assange is hidden within the Bitcoin blockchain.” The creator additionally famous that the file could possibly be obtained by splicing the pubkhash seg of all of the output scripts from a particular transaction.
Screenshot from Redditor u/sprxzk34620.
“The encrypted 7zip file comprises a file named ‘Julianassange.txt,’ however makes an attempt to crack the file have failed,” added the Reddit person. Commenters on the Reddit publish 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 could possibly be an encrypted hyperlink to the swap or recordsdata exposing secrets and techniques,” wrote one individual. Others had been uncertain and said {that a} zip file named “Julianassange.txt” appears 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 top 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 said 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 your entire 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 Since then, Assange’s Ecuadorian asylum was revoked and he was arrested on April 11, 2019, when police raided the embassy.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 publish written by u/sprxzk34620 ended with a heated dialogue about whether or not including arbitrary knowledge to the Bitcoin blockchain via Ordinals was a reputable apply, because it has sparked controversy amongst some bitcoin advocates. “If everybody goes to publish silly cat JPEGs on the blockchain, I can preserve shopping for new exhausting drives for my node … F*** that sh**. Preserve it compact of us,” one Redditor careworn.
