Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikileaks and early Bitcoin supporter, was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and faces extradition to the U.S. on conspiracy charges.Having spent the last seven years seeking asylum in the embassy, Assange has at last lost the support of the Ecuadorian government. He was arrested on April 11, 2019, for failing to appear in British courts. Originally in hiding due to a Swedish arrest warrant over allegations of sexual assault completely unrelated to his involvement with Wikileaks, these charges have since been dropped altogether. Nevertheless, the British government has sought his arrest for failing to appear in court for these charges.The elephant in the room for this prosecution is the involvement of the U.S. federal government. Pursuing him with only a single charge of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, law enforcement has made apprehending him a consistent priority as part of a campaign against Wikileaks’ whistleblowers on the War on Terror.Wikileaks and BitcoinAssange has been a longtime supporter of the Bitcoin community for its ability to circumvent international crackdowns of this nature. After PayPal joined U.S. and Swiss-based banks in banning users from sending donations to Wikileaks, Assange began accepting bitcoin donations as the primary mode of funding in 2011. Wikileaks became one of the first major institutions to accept the payment method, bringing international p...
