1 day ago Sep. 18, 2014 - 3:27 PM PDT
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange doesnt normally give a lot of interviews from his sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy in London but when he is promoting a new book, exceptions can be made. So the Australian freedom-of-information activist did one of Reddits trademark Ask Me Anything interviews on ** about some of the topics he writes about in the book, including Google chairman Eric Schmidt, the future of Bitcoin and the terrorist group ISIS. What follows is a heavily condensed version of that interview.
On the potential of decentralized data protocols like Bitcoin:
Bitcoin is an extremely important innovation, but not in the way most people think. Bitcoins real innovation is a globally verifiable proof publishing at a certain time. The whole system is built on that concept and many other systems can also be built on it. The blockchain nails down history, breaking Orwells dictum of He who controls the present controls the past and he who controls the past controls the future.
On Bitcoins long-term value as a currency:
Heres footnote 185 [from Assange's book]: On the day of the conversation [with Eric Schmidt], Bitcoin had risen above the US dollar and reached price parity with the Euro. By early 2014 it had risen to over $1,000, before falling to $430 as other Bitcoin-derived competing crypto-currencies started to take off. WikiLeaks strategic investments in the currency saw more than 8,000 percent return in three years, seeing us through the extralegal US banking blockade.
On what Google could be doing to fight surveillance culture:
I think it is misguided to be looking to Google to help get us out of this mess. In large part, Google has us in this mess. The companys business model is based on sucking private data out of parts of human community that have never before been subject to monitoring, and turning that into a profit. I do not think it is wise to try to reform something which, from first premises, is beyond reform.
On Assanges personal relationship with Eric Schmidt:
Eric Schmidt is personally likeable in the sense that most billionaires are. You cant get there without making friends. Obamas also likable, but runs an extrajudicial kill list each tuesday and has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous presidents combined. The problem with Google, as in the US administration is not the personalities. It is the structure, the business model and social and ideological matrix in which its decision makers are embedded.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks about Bitcoin ...