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RE: Bitcoin Full Node Operators At Risk of Criminal Prosecution

in #bitcoin7 years ago

While I believe this is a mere hypothetical problem when it comes to the Bitcoin ledger, it can be a very real problem when it comes to the Steem ledger, which has as it's very purpose to offer a censorship-proof publishing arena. The official elected witnesses have not so much anonymity - at best, pseudonymity. It's not hard to guess that there is a lot of material made available on Steem without the explicit approval of the copyright holders, and I'm guessing there is quite some child porn available as well, for those who are willing to dig for it.

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Yes, many blockchain products may be pliant to similar abuse. On Steemit, I believe, the content is not recorded on the blockchain. Only transactions contain pieces of metadata (URL, subject) and memos sent with Steem transfers. So the risk is there that someone may post illegal content in the memos or within the subject. I'm not sure if Steem is designed to allow for memos censorship. I'm quite sure however that the third gen blockchains like EOS or Cardano will find a solution to this problem before going mainstream. [edited]

On Steemit, I believe, the content is not recorded on the blockchain

It is.

Your reply above was recoded in transaction 3e3162c77d23cc2e764a67e5070df08c1d2d8178 which can be viewed an the steemd block explorer: https://steemd.com/tx/3e3162c77d23cc2e764a67e5070df08c1d2d8178

Only the text is (supposed to be) recorded on the blockchain. Pictures, video and audio is typically saved as links. IPFS has become a popular way to distribute such media. However, as the source article says, being in possession of links to child porn can also be a major offense in some jurisdictions. I also believe that even a written story, fiction or factual story, may be considered "child porn" in some jurisdictions. It's also possible to embed graphics as text, i.e. as base64-encoding.

You're right. So Steemit has the same problem it seems...

I'm quite sure however that the third gen blockchains like EOS or Cardano will find a solution to this problem before going mainstream.

I'm not so sure about that. Basically, you can't have an uncensored immutable ledger without also having to accept the risks of storing "illicit information" or "Illegal numbers"

It's tricky indeed and may have some serious implications. Let's see what the smart guys come up with to address this issue (if anything)

As far as i can tell this might be covered by EOS, for Cardano, i can't tell.
Very interesting discussion btw!

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