LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 05: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the … [+] Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has insisted that Mr Assange’s detention should be brought to an end. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

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It’s a global headline – Julian Assange, the former editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, has been granted a plea deal and his sentence has been commuted to time served. His next move is to travel to Saipan and then back to his homeland, Australia. However, the financial burden on him is far from over, despite five years of imprisonment and a deal that didn’t fully pardon him. His fiance, Stella Assange, revealed that this journey to freedom will personally cost Julian a staggering $520,000 USD. The family is urgently appealing for funds to cover the travel expenses and to support his recovery after a grueling ordeal.

While every contribution counts and anybody who wants to make donations should look at the above link as an option, some noted that the donation platform could only take credit/debit cards and bank payments and asked if there was a Bitcoin
Bitcoin
address where they could donate. Now, a BTCPay POS setup allows one to generate on-chain and Lightning Network invoices for the Assange campaign. His brother, Gabriel, who I had previously interviewed, set up this. I confirmed the address with the same account I conducted multiple interviews with, including phone calls. I confirmed they received a small trial donation by generating an invoice at the BTCPay instance they sent me. By generating an invoice, one can pay by copying the LNUrl generated or scanning the QR code from a Bitcoin/Lightning wallet. Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange’s brother, has posted about this BTCPay Server instance here.

Author screenshot

Author screenshot

BTCPay has become a favored way to process payments when people want to benefit fully from Bitcoin’s resilient decentralization and censorship-proof properties. It shows the power of Bitcoin outside of the custody of big banks and ETFs. When HSBC froze the bank accounts of protestors, the outlet that broke the news, the Hong Kong Free Press, had used BTCPay before to accept Bitcoin donations. The Human Rights Foundation uses BTCPay to raise funds as well.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a new option to donate funds in Bitcoin, as Julian Assange and his family have long been a part of Bitcoin’s tapestry. Julian talked with Satoshi about accepting donations in Bitcoin for Wikileaks. It was opportune as PayPal froze funds destined for Wikileaks. Julian has also talked about his deep fascination and writing about Bitcoin, for example, in a Reddit AMA, where he wrote: “There’s lots on Bitcoin in my book – on my thoughts on it and WikiLeaks’ history with it. Eric Schmidt and I conversed for a while about it, and I also included a lot of notes to expand on my views. It’s a fascinating and complex subject, so I can’t possibly go through all of it.” Julian also claimed to make a 50,000% return on Bitcoin in 2017. Since then, Bitcoin’s price has increased from the start of 2017 (around $1,000) to now around 60x (around $60,000).

His family also used clever techniques such as inscribing Wikileaks war logs into the Bitcoin blockchain to continue his legacy. Now that Julian is out of prison, that legacy of engagement with Bitcoin may continue. Bitcoiners can now support Julian and his family by donating to a BTCPay instance in either on-chain Bitcoin or Lightning Network. With a 8 Bitcoin donation (worth about $500k USD) recorded to an on-chain address posted by Stella Assange, Julian’s fiancee, it appears the Bitcoin community is resolved to support Julian and his family.