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So what happens if someone post illegal content to this? As it's on the blockchain it cannot ever be deleted. Plus anyone what stores the Ethereum blockchain (f

So what happens if someone post illegal content to this? As it's on the blockchain it cannot ever be deleted. Plus anyone what stores the Ethereum blockchain (for example to mine or run a node) now has illegal content on their hard drive as well. How will this play out?

sgspace 9y ago
Well it appears we will find out very soon
redthrowaway 9y ago
Doesn't appear images are actually stored, just linked. So imgur or whoever would, presumably, remove it and miners would just have a broken link in their blockchain. I can't think of plaintext that would be both illegal and small enough to store in the blockchain.
- viraptor 9y ago
  Extortion and threats are both short and illegal in the US. Ideally, it would only be illegal to create them in the first place, not copy them because it happens to be a part of some dataset, but IANAL.
  - redthrowaway 9y ago
    I can see this being a pretty terrible tool for doxxing.
    - viraptor 9y ago
      "This contract contains all your private information, embarrassing life stories and more. Pay $100 per month or decryption key will be released." ?
      - redthrowaway 9y ago
        Blackmail is certainly a concern, but even garden variety harassment would be made far more harmful by the inability to have it removed.
sillysaurus3 9y ago
It calls into question the very idea of "illegal content." If you think about it, what does it mean that content is illegal? How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? It's a fake idea we've invented, and new technology has a way of forcing us to realize that. That said, practically, the world will adapt however it adapts. If we can survive the advent of unbreakable encryption, a little trolling won't matter much.
- foepys 9y ago
  That's a very naive view. While illegal content might "only" get you incarcerated in most of the western world, it will get you straight up killed in a lot of the other countries. This doesn't stop just because the technology is unable to delete anything.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    It does stop. When a technology becomes important, countries who forbid that technology miss out. The tech migrates elsewhere, taking talent with it. How many times have we seen that pattern? You can try to make Ethereum illegal if you want, but it'd be a tactical mistake. Ditto for unbreakable encryption. In fact, explain why it makes no sense to make unbreakable encryption illegal. Show your work. I suspect the same argument you'd use for that will apply to this. Required reading: http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23
- otp124 9y ago
  > How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? The courts seem to think they can make some numbers illegal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number
- DanHulton 9y ago
  It's not a fake idea. There's all kinds of illegal content. The encoding is irrelevant.
- joshuamcginnis 9y ago
  > How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? This is like asking, "How can you forbid a set of iron atoms?" in reference to guns.
gcb0 9y ago
this is reads silly if you don't ignore this is just a new implementation of an old concept. its similar to hearing how banal things are now uncertain because a computer was involved at some point. you always could store plain text in block chains. why would it change anything if it's now wrapped into a image board shell? likewise, there was p2p and cache layers since forever. why now this should be treated as something else?

sgspace 9y ago

Well it appears we will find out very soon

redthrowaway 9y ago

Doesn't appear images are actually stored, just linked. So imgur or whoever would, presumably, remove it and miners would just have a broken link in their blockchain. I can't think of plaintext that would be both illegal and small enough to store in the blockchain.

viraptor 9y ago
Extortion and threats are both short and illegal in the US. Ideally, it would only be illegal to create them in the first place, not copy them because it happens to be a part of some dataset, but IANAL.
- redthrowaway 9y ago
  I can see this being a pretty terrible tool for doxxing.
  - viraptor 9y ago
    "This contract contains all your private information, embarrassing life stories and more. Pay $100 per month or decryption key will be released." ?
    - redthrowaway 9y ago
      Blackmail is certainly a concern, but even garden variety harassment would be made far more harmful by the inability to have it removed.

sillysaurus3 9y ago

It calls into question the very idea of "illegal content." If you think about it, what does it mean that content is illegal? How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? It's a fake idea we've invented, and new technology has a way of forcing us to realize that. That said, practically, the world will adapt however it adapts. If we can survive the advent of unbreakable encryption, a little trolling won't matter much.

foepys 9y ago
That's a very naive view. While illegal content might "only" get you incarcerated in most of the western world, it will get you straight up killed in a lot of the other countries. This doesn't stop just because the technology is unable to delete anything.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  It does stop. When a technology becomes important, countries who forbid that technology miss out. The tech migrates elsewhere, taking talent with it. How many times have we seen that pattern? You can try to make Ethereum illegal if you want, but it'd be a tactical mistake. Ditto for unbreakable encryption. In fact, explain why it makes no sense to make unbreakable encryption illegal. Show your work. I suspect the same argument you'd use for that will apply to this. Required reading: http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23
otp124 9y ago
> How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? The courts seem to think they can make some numbers illegal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number
DanHulton 9y ago
It's not a fake idea. There's all kinds of illegal content. The encoding is irrelevant.
joshuamcginnis 9y ago
> How can you forbid a set of ones and zeroes? This is like asking, "How can you forbid a set of iron atoms?" in reference to guns.

gcb0 9y ago

this is reads silly if you don't ignore this is just a new implementation of an old concept. its similar to hearing how banal things are now uncertain because a computer was involved at some point. you always could store plain text in block chains. why would it change anything if it's now wrapped into a image board shell? likewise, there was p2p and cache layers since forever. why now this should be treated as something else?