An Idea for Password Protected and Censorship Resistant Posts/Message Passing
I recently had an idea that will most likely be very polarizing depending on what stance you have on the issue of having the ability to create complete censorship resistance. Basically my idea revolves around giving the ability for users to lock their post with a password and block anyone from seeing it on their feed. It would be available in the posts of the person, but the title would be crossed out and the payment and ability to vote would be forfeited. Im not sure of the technical possibilities to even implement this, but the point would be to incorporate full censorship resistance into posts.
The reason why this can be polarizing is because it could essentially create communities of people using Steemit for criminal actions. Like the darkweb using tor and having pedofile groups, or terrorist forums, there is the possibility that if the tool is given to them, they will use it. This was one of the early fears of bitcoin and other crypto because hypothetically it could give the ability to cater to these industries/ does currently if you believe some articles. However I think that the ultimate benefit that it gives to the community is far greater.
There are already much better and more decentralized ways for these people to communicate so I don’t think Steemit will be a huge pull to them. Using tor on a VPN is probably safer so I would imagine the people would keep using the systems that they are using. Like I said before im not sure if you could even implement an idea like this with the current blockchain we have, or if it would end up being pseudo anonymous. With the addition to password protected posts, password protected message passing could also be implemented, giving a way for people to use the Steemit blockchain to communicate.
The essential benefits that password and censorship protection gives, is the ability for people to communicate without fear of reprisal if they are doing something their government does not condone. If twitter wasn’t used in the Arab Spring revolutions, the message people were trying to portray to each other would have never materialized. The problem with twitter was that some people involved in failed revolutions were apprehended and arrested. There are ways for these people to contact eachother and communicate, but we have the ability to put it all in one place and password protect it.
You could essentially run the same type of blog people are running on the darknet, but with the ability to access it with ease, if given the password. Also the accounts involved can message pass with eachother. I am curious to see if this could even be implemented or if it even really makes sense given the amount of work needed. Would love to hear your thoughts and the thoughts of the technical people here that would know about the difficulty of implementing such a system. It isn’t needed immediately, I just believe that offering the ability could help groups communicate on more private issues better than what is available today.
Good way of thinking @calaber24p! Hopefully an option like this will be implemented with time.
Why add the ability to create private posts instead of just adding the ability to send private messages?
both would be useful for different purposes
Interesting idea. I feel the point of steem was to create a social media by doing this you are making it unsocial. I also feel if this was ever needed, like you mentioned, there may be better avuenes to approach it
Still rolling with the steem idea inside of hiding something it could just be code and the key for the code could be dist to the required pers
Interesting idea although I don't know if Steemit is the place for private communications like that. I think if they're encrypted/password protected then they shouldn't even show up in peoples feed.
It would be interesting to have posts that are only viewable to people in a certain group though.
i am considering the benefits and respect your thinking.
good idea!! upvoted and followed! have a good day mate! :)
You could start posting encrypted messages today. It won't make you popular, but you don't need anybody's permission to post gibberish instead of English. You'd just have to share a password with the reader, so they can decrypt it in an offline app.
Steem is not nearly anonymous enough to publish illegal content safely. Monero will be completely anonymous when Kovri is implemented to hide IP addresses, but posting content on the Monero blockchain would be ridiculously expensive.
You know what keeps me awake at night? At the moment, I'm afraid it's easier to buy or exchange child porn on the internet than to download it for free. It's shared in darknet forums where members have to upload their own videos in order to prove that they're actual pedophiles rather than police officers. So they're encouraged to create new material. I hope that technology which makes it safe to share child porn for free will ruin this market and lead to less victims. Does that outweigh allowing more exposure for existing victims? I think it does.
Good thought process
It is not unreasonable to have closed communities. On a decentralized system like steem, it would require cryptography, and encryption, to make it work.
My ideal network would allow closed communities with members therein voting full weight and receiving rewards proportional to those weight, if it were a reward system.
My ideal directly contradicts the current steem model of "everyone in everyone else's business", but this aspect of steem is what has driven me and others largely away. I have divested about 80% of my holdings and am contemplating divesting the rest.
One way to change my mind would be to have cryptographically closed communites, and less nosiness, trolling, and harassment, but I'm not holding my breath.
Finally, the FUD about people doing "illegal" things with cryptography is shameful, although I know you don't mean it as FUD.
The ability to communicate freely is enshrined in the charters of many societies, and an online society should be no different. A more important worry is what horrors a government will inflict on its people. I welcome any technology that impedes governmental oppression. For those thinking that governments will not commit atrocities, you need to turn off Dancing with the Stars and start paying attention to world events.
None of what you describe is precluded by the blockchain. It could all be done with an enhanced UI and could even draw from the same reward pool. And after the next hard fork when linear rewards are introduced, there is less reason for anyone to care how anyone else decides to allocate their share of rewards, which fits quite naturally into not even being able to see what is being rewarded (by someone else).
What weaknesses do you see with Steem's current very open model?
There is nothing wrong with a very open platform. However, openness is not mutually exclusive with the potential for closed communities, which many people, including myself, would prefer for most of our communication.
Steem could have both.
Hey @calareb24p
Ideas like these are what we want in the contest so people can be inspied and design a great User-Experience for it.
So please keep an eye on this so you can submit your idea or Theme Idea
https://steemit.com/steemit/@joewantsfreedom/design-better-steemit-contest-design-thinking-approach-to-improve-our-user-experience-on-steemit-introduction-resteem-to-spread#@luchibaguchi/re-joewantsfreedom-re-luchibaguchi-re-joewantsfreedom-design-better-steemit-contest-design-thinking-approach-to-improve-our-user-experience-on-steemit-introduction