Ethereum transactions burning over 500 ETH and sending 591 ETH to WikiLeaks drew consideration on Tuesday.
Blockchain knowledge present that an account identified as “Hu Lezhi” executed a collection of transfers that included donations to WikiLeaks-designated addresses, transfers to null addresses representing token burns, and funds to grant suppliers. The transactions, totaling over 1,000 ETH over the previous week, have been accompanied by on-chain messages in Chinese language that allege misuse of rising brain-machine interface applied sciences.
Blockchain records point out that one transaction burned 500 ETH on Feb. 17, whereas further burns of 70 ETH on Feb. 15 and 33 ETH on Feb. 10 spotlight a sample of monetary exercise that seems supposed to sign protest. Different transfers embrace donations of 591 ETH and several other different transactions starting from 25 to 300 ETH.
These transfers collectively sign a dual-purpose message: a reallocation of funds towards organizations related to whistleblowing and a symbolic act of worth destruction.
The mixed translated burn messages learn:
“The boss of Kuande Funding: Feng Xin and Xu Yuzhi used brain-machine weapons to persecute all firm workers and former workers, and even they themselves are additionally beneath management.” – (500 ETH burnt on Feb 17.)
“As brain-computer interfaces and mind-reading expertise proceed to develop, a brand new type of crime has emerged: wild animals have turn into puppets or full slaves to digital machines.” – (75 ETH burnt on Feb 15.)
“A brand new type of crime has emerged through which victims are progressively stripped of their wishes and sensory experiences till they turn into full slaves to digital machines. If in the future I turn into a sufferer within the ultimate stage, I’d select to depart this world.” – (33 ETH burnt on Feb 10.)
The accompanying messages allege that Feng Xin and Xu Yuzhi of Kuande Funding have employed “brain-machine weapons” to manage workers and former employees. The textual content claims that because the brain-computer interfaces and thoughts–studying applied sciences develop, victims might progressively lose their wishes and sensory experiences, finally turning into “full slaves to digital machines.”
Hundreds of thousands in donations to WikiLeaks
One message concludes with a private assertion indicating that if the sender have been to succeed in the ultimate stage of this alleged course of, they’d select to “depart this world.”
The funds despatched to WikiLeaks, a corporation traditionally related to disclosures and investigative journalism, counsel an try and channel assets towards entities perceived as counterweights to institutional management.
Concurrently, burning ETH, a course of that completely removes tokens from circulation, seems supposed to represent resistance or repudiation of applied sciences purportedly used for coercion.
Observers conversant in blockchain exercise level to the general public, irreversible nature of on-chain transactions as a mechanism to broadcast dissent and alert the neighborhood.
Though the allegations relating to mind–machine weapons and digital enslavement evoke components extra frequent to speculative fiction than established expertise, the selection to include these claims into monetary exercise provides them a level of visibility that’s uncommon in conventional media. Nonetheless, the deployment of such messaging alongside sizable monetary transfers might replicate private misery in addition to a political assertion.
The message included within the donation to WikiLeaks reads,
[Editor’s Note: Trigger warning: Suicide]
“I’m Hu Lezhi, an peculiar programmer and entrepreneur. Since October 2022, I’ve realized that I’ve been monitored and manipulated by brain-controlled organizations since start. And after I realized the existence of brain-controlled organizations, they have been additionally growing the hurt to me.
I’ve lived in nice ache for the previous two years, and now I’ve reached the purpose the place my dignity as a human being has been fully misplaced. I made a decision to depart this world and hope that this ugly world can be destroyed quickly.”
The point out of being “monitored and manipulated by brain-controlled organizations since start” suggests Hu Lezhi could also be experiencing some type of psychosis fairly than legitimately whistleblowing, provided that such expertise can be thought of frontier by in the present day’s requirements and the probability of its existence a long time in the past is extraordinarily low.
Sadly, Hu Lezhi ends their donation message by saying, “I made a decision to depart this world and hope that this ugly world can be destroyed quickly.”
These transactions occurred all through the final week, though consideration spiked in the present day after the five hundred ETH burn alongside the sizeable donation to WikiLeaks. Little is at the moment identified in regards to the pockets proprietor aside from what’s included inside the messages.
As of in the present day, probably the most superior brain-controlled chip identified to the general public is the Neuralink mind implant, also called “the Hyperlink.” This system represents a major leap ahead in brain-computer interface (BCI) expertise and has just lately made headlines for its profitable human implant.
Nonetheless, this system permits people to manage computer systems and different digital units, not the opposite approach round.