The Bitcoin Ordinals startup, OrdinalsBot, and Undertaking Spartacus—a gaggle of nameless Bitcoiners and self-described cyberpunks—are reigniting efforts to inscribe the Afghan Conflict Diary utilizing the Ordinals protocol.
The revival, targeted on preserving the Conflict Logs on the Bitcoin community, is supported by Assange Marketing campaign chairman Gabriel Shipton, who famous the significance of safeguarding the Afghan Conflict Diary for future generations.
“Obviously having all that data stored on-chain, forever immutable, is very important for our society to learn from our mistakes,” Shipton advised Decrypt in an interview.
“That's what Julian was always about, publishing these secrets so that people can understand what went on, what happened, and hopefully make corrections to their institutions and their society.”
Shipton partnered with Ordinalsbot to inscribe 76,911 uncensored articles from the Conflict Logs on the Bitcoin community. Beginning December 12, Ordinalsbot will relaunch the trouble, permitting customers to take part in minting the Afghan Conflict Diary.
“Having this information on the Bitcoin Blockchain just really takes Julian's legacy and WikiLeaks legacy to the next level,” Shipton mentioned. “The Afghan War Diary is no longer on a service somewhere that could go down.”
The Afghan Conflict Diary
The Afghan Conflict Diary, or Afghan Conflict Logs, is a set of over 91,000 categorised U.S. army paperwork leaked to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Military Intelligence analyst, in July 2010.
Masking 2004–2010, the logs reveal insights into the Afghan Conflict, together with army operations, intelligence, covert missions, and civilian casualties, and reshaped how the general public understood the battle in Afghanistan, transparency, and trendy warfare.
One of many essential criticisms of WikiLeaks releasing the Afghan Conflict Logs in 2010 was that it might put lives in peril if it have been launched. Anticipating this, Shipton mentioned, Assange made plans to guard the identification of the folks listed within the paperwork.
“I think what's really missed about this story is that Julian created technology to help redact these massive files, redactions that previously weren't available to these journalists who were taking out names like they weren't able to do that to these files,” Shipton advised Decrypt.
He continued: “Julian developed technology to protect people, and these releases eventually brought an end to this war. So I think those benefits really outweigh those accusations.”
Assange was arrested in 2019 after Ecuador revoked his asylum, ending almost seven years of their London embassy, and confronted extradition to the US on espionage costs for publishing categorised paperwork. In June, Assange accepted a plea deal, and was launched from Belmarsh jail in London. In November, U.S. Representatives Thomas Massie and James McGovern referred to as on President Joe Biden to pardon Assange earlier than leaving workplace.
“A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea deal and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs,” the Congressmen wrote.
BREAKING: U.S. Lawmakers @RepMcGovern @RepThomasMassie name on President Biden to Pardon Julian Assange.
Signal the open letter⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZbmziZDuRZ
— Gabriel Shipton (@GabrielShipton) November 27, 2024
The Afghan Conflict Diary is the newest in high-profile inscriptions orchestrated by the Ordinalsbot crew. In March, founding member of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah, tapped the platform to launch a set of music-themed Ordinal Inscriptions.
That very same month, Ordinalsbot collaborated with Marathon Digital Holdings to mint the Runestone, the biggest Ordinal inscription on the time at 4MB. The Runestone inscription was despatched to a pockets that supposedly belonged to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Inscribing the Conflict Diary on the Bitcoin Blockchain
Named after the well-known Roman gladiator-turned-rebel chief, “Project Spartacus” is an initiative to completely inscribe the Afghan Conflict Logs, initially revealed by Julian Assange, onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
"It’s in the name as well—Project Spartacus—you’re standing up, and each Bitcoiner is standing up alongside Julian," Ordinalsbot co-founder Toby Lewis advised Decrypt. "It’s how they can share a piece of history that’s very controversial but considered very important, especially by Bitcoiners. It’s a moment in time."
In October 2023, 2,000 of those logs have been inscribed in the course of the undertaking's preliminary section earlier than it stalled. Beginning subsequent week, WikiLeaks supporters will be capable of select what number of articles from the Afghan Conflict Diary they need to mint in bundles of 1, 5, 20, 50, or 100.
Impressed by Stella Assange's presentation on Undertaking Spartacus on the Bitcoin Convention in 2023, Ordinalsbot co-founder Brian Laughlan mentioned the Ordinalsbot crew joined in to revive the stalled Afghan Conflict Diary initiative.
“The project stalled for a while due to technical reasons. The previous team, overwhelmed or unable to continue, eventually moved on,” Laughlan mentioned. “Through our contacts at Bitcoin Magazine, we connected with Gabriel and felt honored to step in. We were ready to plug the project back in and power it up with services prepared.
Laughlan emphasized his belief that ordinals could be used as a tool for immutable, censorship-resistant data storage beyond NFTs. He added that minting the Afghan War Diary inscriptions is free, with collectors paying the Bitcoin network fees.
“To be clear, this isn’t about making money—our service fee only covers costs,” Laughlan added.
A Lengthy Relationship between Bitcoin and WikiLeaks
For Shipton, bringing the Afghan Conflict Diary to Bitcoin follows an extended relationship between WikiLeaks and Bitcoin for the reason that early days of the crypto when WikiLeaks started accepting Bitcoin donations.
One of many final posts from Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto earlier than disappearing in 2010 was relating to WikiLeaks and the group turning to Bitcoin after its monetary providers have been lower off.
In 2017, following rumors that he had died, Assange put these rumors to mattress by studying out Bitcoin’s newest block hash throughout a web-based speak.
I make this enchantment to WikiLeaks to not attempt to use Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a small beta group in its infancy.
You wouldn’t stand to get greater than pocket change, and the warmth you’d deliver would probably destroy us at this stage.
[5th December, 2010]
— Satoshi Nakamoto Quotes (@QuotesNakamoto) April 7, 2024
“WikiLeaks was able to continue paying for its servers, paying for its staff, and everything in Bitcoin,” Shipton mentioned. “Bitcoin was their operating currency, and they had the biggest state on the planet, the most powerful state totally debanking them, and they were able to survive and keep publishing.”
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair