In a surprising recent turn of events it looks like Coinbase, a cryptocurrency firm has just made the elective decision to suspend WikiLeaks’ account on their platform. The reasons for their decision are not completely clear but we are going to be looking at the statements that both Coinbase and WikiLeaks have made and present them to you so that you can have all the information you need in order to form your own opinion on this matter.
How did this happen?
Well, first of all we would like to mention what Coinbase does. The cryptocurrency company specializes in providing a feature that allows online shops to accept different cryptocurrencies as payment. Now how does WikiLeaks fit into this equation? Well, it does not only specialize in uncovering and posting documents that are confidential, they also sell T-shirts and posters and they allow their customers to pay for them in Bitcoin.
This weekend WikiLeaks reported that their account got suspended and that they received a message from Coinbase telling them that they were violating the terms of service, however they did not decide to mention the exact terms that were violated, leaving the context to feel very vague.
Sadly, Coinbase was not available to comment on this issue or to provide their side of things. WikiLeaks took things to the next level by tweeting that they are ready to “call for a global blockade of Coinbase”. We will have to wait and see if things will really take this turn or of the situation is going to be solved in a more amicable manner.
For now, we want to end the discussion by reminding people that WikiLeaks has been in favor of Bitcoin, going so far as to actually invest in it and it does seem natural that they would want to keep their option to receive payments in Bitcoin working in the future.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.