After five years languishing in a U.K. jail and nearly seven years confined to the interior of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is finally free. How? He cut a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. The terms: Assange pleaded guilty to a single count of espionage and, in return, received a sentence of time served. Under the terms of his deal, he left the U.K. and took the first steps towards freedom by flying on a private jet to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a protectorate of the United States.
The Assange saga has been nothing less than extraordinary from the day he took asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid extradition, and his story mesmerized and divided the world. To many, he was the champion of free speech; to others, he was a reckless provocateur who put many lives at risk by publishing classified documents. The debate over what he did and the ensuing legal battles only added to his mystique.
The Assange saga does, at the very least, underscore how inseparable the history of cryptocurrency has become with both him and WikiLeaks. In 2014, Assange revealed how Bitcoin and WikiLeaks helped each other when things became difficult. Initially, WikiLeaks foreswore any Bitcoin donations to not attract unwanted government attention to the fledgling asset at the express request of Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Whenever a financial blockade confronted WikiLeaks, Bitcoin proved a lifeline. By accepting Bitcoin donations, WikiLeaks was able to gain much-needed funding while simultaneously boosting the legitimacy and valuable application of Bitcoin.
But Assange's ingenuity did not stop there. When, in 2017, rumors spread that he had died untimely, he gave a different kind of proof-of-life, with him reading off the latest Bitcoin block hash to somehow deepen his cause and cryptocurrency bond. Moreover, at the height of his legal cases, distributed autonomous organization-based donors contributed over 16,500 ether to fund his defense, over $55.2 million by today's standards. Digital fundraising has shown that blockchain can have considerable implications for supporting characters like Assange in court controversies.
This very legal ordeal of Julian Assange brought to light that whistleblowing is indeed a complicated procedure, and so is government transparency. His collaboration with Chelsea Manning in releasing classified documents made for a global debate: the public's right to know versus national security. Although Manning's sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2017, Assange still had to face the full consequences of his actions. This plea deal is a big deal in this ongoing conversation, possibly setting a legal precedent for future whistleblower and media cases.
As Assange walks into this new stage of his life, one can't help but wonder at the bigger picture.
Will his freedom revive efforts for more transparency and accountability across governments?
Or will it deter further whistleblowers, who could now be most cautious regarding the severe consequences they may face?
Assange's story acts as a stark reminder of the delicate balance between people's right to information and the protection of sensitive data.