Someone inscribed the War Logs of Wikileaks into BTC

[Faisal2202]

I was quite shocked when I heard this news and when confirmed it. Well, to all those who don't know what is Ordinals and what is Wikileaks and what are war logs. Listen to me.

Ordinals have allowed one to inscribe video, text, images, etc. into the BTC blockchain. Some take it as a loophole while some take benefit of it. And the Wikileaks is a website more like a news website which is nonprofit and full of all the war crimes done by the US in several countries. Many of the readers of this post must be well aware of WikiLeaks and the journalist ( Julian Assange ) who created it and is in jail now for publishing the secret logs of war on the website. Now coming to the war log, consists of 92,000 documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which is full of sensitive data.

Now someone is inscribing all of those war logs (which are the top secret of the US and removed by them ) in the BTC blockchain. I mean, whether they are doing the right thing or not I will not get into this discussion. But overall we might see some hot things against BTC as the documents which are already on the BTC blockchain now, cannot be deleted or altered.

I cannot say anything that what those authorities would do but one thing I will say for sure is, that BTC has not provided us the financial freedom only but provided the freedom of speech too. And now I have started to think that BTC is legendary and really has exceeded the expectations of Satoshi (answer to those OPs who ask mostly --> either BTC exceeds Satoshi's expectations or not?)

Well, the group who have taken responsibility is known as Project Spa-rta-cus's and they have initialized a website to inscribe the logs on the BTC blockchain. Well, now from the technical point of view, we might see a surge in the transaction fee because if someone has decided to inscribe all of the 92,000 documents then we might see some congestion on the market. So, be prepared for it.

And what do you guys have to say on this? I mean regardless of the differences and being as a BTC enthusiast, Do you think BTC is being used for good purposes or not? I mean my mind also told me, that this might be a divergence to divert some attention of the economists (BTC enthusiasts also) from the Palestine and Israel war. I mean, who knows, next time a journalist like Julian Assange, will not have to go to jail to bring the truth in the front of the world as they can simply use the BTC blockchain. Or I am wrong here?

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/someone-is-inscribing-all-of-wikileaks-infamous-afghan-war-logs-on-bitcoin

Disclaimer* I don't know, if I broke any rule of the forum by sharing the news, if I did, then please correct me by suggestions.

[digaran]

No you haven't violated any forum or any other rules.
War logs, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Vietnam, Korea, Iran, Egypt, other African countries, nuking Japan, and so many other crimes.  Don't people already know about the rapes, executions, beheadings, sabotage, genocide etc all around the world done by US? Truth is out there.
Though this thing is more like an attack on Bitcoin, because Bitcoin has another goal, that is to stand against the capitalism, but now it has turned into a mini capitalism of it's own, the irony.😉

[Upgrade00]

Do you think BTC is being used for good purposes or not?

No one can control how people use Bitcoin. It's their Bitcoin and they use it they way they seem fit. It is just a means of transferring data from on address to another and registers that into an immutable blockchain. The intent of the sender is not taking into account.

Disclaimer* I don't know, if I broke any rule of the forum by sharing the news, if I did, then please correct me by suggestions.

You can't break a rule by sharing a news. The only way you can break a forum rule when posting a thread is if you plagiarize or post malwares.

[hatshepsut93]

Are they putting the actual data on the blockchain, or only links to the data stored externally? But even regardless of this, the US government is not trying to purge all those documents from the Internet, they understand well how futile it is. They just ban it from popular channels because it's easier to order them.

And Bitcoin already has some illegal materials added to its blockchain - absolutely nothing happened despite similar concerns being raised in the past.

[Faisal2202]

You can't break a rule by sharing a news. The only way you can break a forum rule when posting a thread is if you plagiarize or post malwares.

I am aware of the plagiarism rule, my confusion was about military news which I have shared. But I guess it's not a problem.

[Upgrade00]

I am aware of the plagiarism rule, my confusion was about military news which I have shared. But I guess it's not a problem.

There's no rule against that. As long as it's publicly available information and you're not doxxing anyone.

[paid2]

--snip--

Though this thing is more like an attack on Bitcoin, because Bitcoin has another goal, that is to stand against the capitalism, but now it has turned into a mini capitalism of it's own, the irony.😉

I agree that this could be an attack on BTC, Wikileaks has given BTC a lot of publicity in the past, and many bitcoiners (including Satoshi) at this time have been afraid of the potential press fallout and the spotlight on BTC for biased reasons. Fortunately, Bitcoin has since taken a good seat and this time it's less worrying, I think.

On the other hand, I don't think BTC is profoundly anti-capitalist. I tend to agree with the author of this article from Unijoin's blog:

Pro-capitalism. The White Paper stresses Bitcoin’s advantages to commerce and merchants as a free-enterprise payment system. Peer-to-peer transfer is a pure expression of the free market, with no intervention.

Source : https://unijoin.medium.com/satoshis-politically-neutral-views-b0d1555401b7

[vv181]

What's this all about is a collective action initiated by Project Spartacus, mainly for solidarity acts to Jullian Assange. They also emphasise the adcovation to use Bitcoin as a censorship-resistance publishing tool.

Project Spartacus invites supporters to stand united against government persecution of journalists, publishers, and whistleblowers leveraging the censorship-resistance of Bitcoin.
~
Project Spartacus is a groundbreaking initiative at the cross-section of journalism and peer-to-peer technology, dedicated to highlighting the critical importance of freedom in communication.
~
A first of its kind, Project Spartacus invites supporters to participate as citizen journalists by collectively publishing The Afghan War Logs to the Bitcoin blockchain.

Are they putting the actual data on the blockchain, or only links to the data stored externally?

They do put the actual data, converted to SVG from the raw data of the logs.

https://ordinals.com/inscription/f00d8740c4f291b0fec63565e0c7f40e2fc4fbf6c594fa7fb75a14e475efaed6i0
https://ordinals.com/inscription/72c7b9fe516e959cd079db3e47cfdc9e3e0ca69ce114ac1dd75ac3a734533ca1i0

But even regardless of this, the US government is not trying to purge all those documents from the Internet, they understand well how futile it is. They just ban it from popular channels because it's easier to order them.

I don't know if there is a censorship issue on the popular channel, but I still see Collateral Murder on the popular channel.

I mean, who knows, next time a journalist like Julian Assange, will not have to go to jail to bring the truth in the front of the world as they can simply use the BTC blockchain. Or I am wrong here?

Whistleblowing acts are a complex process, not simply solely finding publishing tools.

[Darker45]

This is basically an effort in support of Julian Assange. The website makes it clear. I don't know, it seems this effort is a statement that reminds the US government that they're still in this kind of war. I'm afraid this won't benefit Julian. This might instead cause a backlash and the UK might end up favoring the US' extradition request.

Anyway, everybody can join in this effort. This is being outsourced in a way. This is probably because the amount of information to be published is massive. Anybody can publish a log paying only the network fee. You can also choose the quantity of information you want to publish. And then you'll provide a Bech32 Bitcoin address for the information.

Right now, the fee is just 2 Sats/vB even in high priority transactions. The number of inscription is growing, probably taking advantage of the cheap fees. If many will help in publishing these information, we should expect transactions to flood the mempool. The fees will certainly rise as a result.

To those who want to help, please make sure the address you'll provide will never be linked to you as it might expose you to certain risks. I'm not even sure if this effort is actually coming from the real supporters of Assange. For all we know, this could be coming from the government itself or from certain individuals who want to clog the Bitcoin network. And there's also no way to verify the veracity of the information to be published.

[vv181]

I'm afraid this won't benefit Julian. This might instead cause a backlash and the UK might end up favoring the US' extradition request.

Public advocacy for Jullian Assange has been long-running for him. So, I don't see how this would not benefit the cause and rather make a backlash.

I'm not even sure if this effort is actually coming from the real supporters of Assange. For all we know, this could be coming from the government itself or from certain individuals who want to clog the Bitcoin network.

Well, what kind of effort should be acted upon by true supporters of Assange?

I don't think there is favourable reasoning for governments to start this project and those who want to clog the network can simply mint a meaningless thing rather than leaks material.

And there's also no way to verify the veracity of the information to be published.

That's a bold claim. Few news sources have verified its authenticity.

[Darker45]

I'm afraid this won't benefit Julian. This might instead cause a backlash and the UK might end up favoring the US' extradition request.

Public advocacy for Jullian Assange has been long-running for him. So, I don't see how this would not benefit the cause and rather make a backlash.

The cause is different from Julian. This might benefit the cause, yes, but Julian is already in the hands of the government. He is in jail. If the fate of Julian is not as important as the cause, he can rot there, for all we care. But if people care for Julian, perhaps they won't stoke what's considered to be a dead war.  

I'm not even sure if this effort is actually coming from the real supporters of Assange. For all we know, this could be coming from the government itself or from certain individuals who want to clog the Bitcoin network.

Well, what kind of effort should be acted upon by true supporters of Assange?

I don't think there is favourable reasoning for governments to start this project and those who want to clog the network can simply mint a meaningless thing rather than leaks material.

Well, I was just thinking of the other possibilities. The government, after all, is not anymore hiding from all kinds of crimes that were committed in Afghanistan. That the military was actually a cruel pack of wild animals in that foreign country isn't something new I guess.

Leaked materials are far better than useless ape jpegs. Nobody would join a movement broadcasting transactions involving poor artworks. Many might, though, if it involves information of war crimes committed by no less than the government.  

And there's also no way to verify the veracity of the information to be published.

That's a bold claim. Few news sources have verified its authenticity.

Those are third parties. Don't trust, verify doesn't exempt them. When I tried doing the steps to help publish the logs, at a certain point an address is asked where the information will be sent. I don't know how to verify those information myself. Also, I'm asked to pay first.

[Kakmakr]

I do not see the need for people to inscribe this into the Blockchain, because the information is already out there and it was discussed in detail all over the world.   

This is just causing a lot of congestion on the Blockchain and an increase in the transaction fees that needs to be paid to confirm it. There are also several copies of these documents stored offline, due to the sensitivity of this matter.. (people know government agencies will try to block it online)   

[pooya87]

sigh... it's really sad to see how some malicious actors have successfully turned Bitcoin into a cloud storage and people have not done anything about it so far. There was only some discussions here and there but that too was forgotten as nobody really lifted a finger to fix what they Ordinals Attack is exploiting...

[DooMAD]

sigh... it's really sad to see how some malicious actors have successfully turned Bitcoin into a cloud storage and people have not done anything about it so far. There was only some discussions here and there but that too was forgotten as nobody really lifted a finger to fix what they Ordinals Attack is exploiting...

If someone is acting within the rules and you try to change the rules, then "fixing it" suddenly carries very different connotations.  You are working from the perspective that your definition of valid use is correct and that theirs is incorrect, but I don't see anywhere that this has been established and agreed to by a significant portion of users.

Beyond that, attempting to resist this type of usage means making both yourself, along with any developers that joined in with the change, self-declared arbiters of what is or isn't an "acceptable" transaction and then taking away the freedoms of others to make those types of transactions.  That was always going to be fighting a losing battle when you've got little to back it up.

Path of least resistance wins again.

[ImThour]

I think these people are making enemies for the Bitcoin community and the governments that are being targetted with these war logs getting printed on the Blockchain won't be happy.
They will surely try to stop this from happening which will result in strict regulatory actions against Bitcoin and it always hinders the normal people who wanted to invest and be part of this community.

[nutildah]

sigh... it's really sad to see how some malicious actors have successfully turned Bitcoin into a cloud storage and people have not done anything about it so far.

People have been putting arbitrary data in Bitcoin transactions for over a decade, including Satoshi.

There was only some discussions here and there but that too was forgotten as nobody really lifted a finger to fix what they Ordinals Attack is exploiting...

Continuing to mischaracterize it as an "attack" serves no purpose except to add emotional weight to a feeble argument. Wise minds are capable of assessing the longevity of trends, and the data suggests the trend is coming to an end. I assume that the core maintainers do not want to hastily interject changes to a delicate system if they are ultimately unnecessary.

If Ordinals was an "attack", it was an utter failure and only served to demonstrate bitcoin's robustness.

[stompix]

If someone is acting within the rules and you try to change the rules, then "fixing it" suddenly carries very different connotations.  You are working from the perspective that your definition of valid use is correct and that theirs is incorrect, but I don't see anywhere that this has been established and agreed to by a significant portion of users.

The beautiful way of praising decentralization by telling others what to do because one knows better, right?

However this topic is pretty interesting, I see cheering for documenting the war crimes committed by the US, let's see if someone starts inscribing in the blockchain the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine will we have the same thing? Or the pictures of dead Israelis in the Hamas attack? If blockchain is supposed to offer refuge from people trying to erase stuff from the internet then how about we inscribe all of Mia Kalifa movies since she was banned from her show due to her support for Palestine? Would be a nice gesture!

What would be the best way and attitude towards these things?

Probably not doing anything and not taking stupid sides in any of them, if somebody wants to burn money on something 'HIS COINS, HIS DECISION", you don't like the way how Bitcoin currently operates, it's open source, you go and make your own bitcoin, with booze and hookers!  

If somebody would want to attack Bitcoin by spamming the mempool he could have done so ordinals or not ordinals, if Bitcoin were to be defeated by someone willing to spend 1 million a day on fee spam then what chances would it have against a government willing to spend billions?  

I think these people are making enemies for the Bitcoin community and the governments that are being targetted with these war logs getting printed on the Blockchain won't be happy.

Over exaggerating, nobody cares anymore about those war logs, everyone who cared knows about them a long time ago, if you go on the street and ask the average Joe when the invasion of Afghanistan started I doubt you will get 10% with the right year.

[franky1]

If someone is acting within the rules and you try to change the rules, then "fixing it" suddenly carries very different connotations.  You are working from the perspective that your definition of valid use is correct and that theirs is incorrect, but I don't see anywhere that this has been established and agreed to by a significant portion of users.

yet again you keep forgetting that bitcoin has not always had a rule to allow upto 4mb of junk per tx.. new features were added to soften the rules and allow things to be added unchecked.. which these new features are the flaw that carries different connotations

its funny that a guy that didnt want features that allow more transactions due to his fear of bloat. is now allowing non transaction dta to be added which causes bloat which he does not want to stop

you keep saying about freedoms yet you keep shouting that people should have no choice or method to request features be added/disabled outside the centralised group of devs in command of changes.. and yes you adore the tyranny of central core control, you dont want the mass population having a say against core, you like the bypass that allows core to change their preferences without mass consent

[DooMAD]

bitcoin has not always had a rule to allow upto 4mb of junk per tx.. new features were added

Can't say I'm surprised that you're once again taking the opportunity to cry your pathetic eyes out about it.  Cry more plz.  

its funny that a guy that didnt want features that allow more transactions due to his fear of bloat. is now allowing non transaction dta to be added which causes bloat which he does not want to stop

a)  You're an illiterate moron and you seemingly have no idea what I want, despite all the times I've made it abundantly clear to you over the years.

b)  What I want is not relevant to the discussion at hand.  What matters in this topic is what miners and a majority of non-mining full-node users are prepared to accept and relay.

Now, do you have any useful contributions to make to this topic, or is crying about 2016 the entirety of your capability?  One day you'll surprise us and have some topical, relevant views to express.

[ZAINmalik75]

And what do you guys have to say on this? I mean regardless of the differences and being as a BTC enthusiast, Do you think BTC is being used for good purposes or not? I mean my mind also told me, that this might be a divergence to divert some attention of the economists (BTC enthusiasts also) from the Palestine and Israel war. I mean, who knows, next time a journalist like Julian Assange, will not have to go to jail to bring the truth in the front of the world as they can simply use the BTC blockchain. Or I am wrong here?

In my opinion, in this case, BTC is being used in the wrong way. I wouldn't say it for a bad purpose, but it is being used in the wrong way. It was not meant to be some Google Drive or any cloud storage that provided decentralization features and other things. It is only meant to be used in finance to digitalize the financial world and free it from centralized authorities. But the uploading of data, like pictures and videos, poses some next-level threats to the BTC blockchain. What if someone uploaded the leaks of someone on the BTC blockchain, like a big celebrity or a video of some top-level person who has big connections?

The bad thing will be that this will not be altered or deleted after. I think to deal with this, we need an upgrade that would filter out the sensitive data and allow the validators to reject those entries.

I would not say it's diverted from the current war, it's just a thought of you. But I do agree that BTC has provided us with freedom of speech too. Like in our country, many political leaders are doing what they should not do, and all social media and new agencies are with them, and if anyone raises questions, we don't know where they go. The point is, that blockchain does provide us with freedom of speech now, and I like it, but it will also compromise the blockchain, and the fee will be high.