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Unfortunately, one of the 'killer apps' for crypto is extortion. It's going to change the world and not for the better. The hard part of extortion has always b
by 55555 9y ago
Unfortunately, one of the 'killer apps' for crypto is extortion. It's going to change the world and not for the better.
The hard part of extortion has always been getting paid. It's always involved exposure ("meet me there with a bag of money") or been subject to limitations (wire transfer clawbacks, cash withdrawal limits, etc), until now.
Right now anyone in the world can fill an insulin syringe with cyanide solution, walk into supermarkets (too big to properly secure, and there's too many supermarkets to prevent it), and inject it into random plastic coke bottles. People will stop drinking coke, and then Coca-cola will be willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to make it stop. Ten years ago, the extortionist would then have to meet somewhere to collect a bag full of money, and that's where the risk comes in. But now they can simply send coca-cola a bitcoin address and get paid anonymously risk-free. You can design extremely profitable low-risk crimes.
The question then becomes, if more people were given the ability to steal risk-free, would they? Anyone who has spent time in the crypto ecosystem has already learned the answer. They will. This is why nearly every exchange gets 'hacked' and so many darknet vendors pull exit scams. It turns out a lot of the reason most people are good all the time has more to do with fear of getting caught than virtue.
The world is about to become a very scary place.
Be the change that you wish to see. Money won't make you happy.
- wskinner 9y agoUpvoted for your last two sentences. If this is the destiny of humanity, so be it. Either we will get past it, or we won't. That was always the case, bitcoin or not. The fundamental issue is human nature. Technology merely distills and clarifies.
- ace_of_spades 9y agoThis is not really such an obvious consequence as you make it out to be. Technology can channel different aspects of human nature more or less intensively. Bitcoin for example is a design which puts forward more of the „bad“ sides... through its design it channels greed at the expense of sustainability. Interestingly it only works if people participate and accept it, so we actually have a strong lever that we can work against it. Just don’t participate. So to sum up... I think it’s mor appropriate to say the fundamental issue is how we design around human nature to create a world worth living...
- golergka 9y agoBut how will such a criminal make Coca cola trust that it's him and not his impostor asking for money? And how will he make Coca cola trust that he will actually stop doing it?
- gst 9y ago1) Send the SHA1 hash of a message in which you detail what you're going to do (locations, time, etc.). 2) Do whatever you're planning to do. 3) Transmit another message to the company you're blackmailing in which you reveal the message that matches the original SHA1 hash.
- stepik777 9y agoOk, but why use a broken hash algorithm?
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoBecause you're not actually trying to encrypt anything.
- cma 9y agoFor something as large scale as that coke scheme bitcoin could always implement clawbacks via consensus.
- LethargicStud 9y agoBut that won't scale because the public won't have time to study every case that occurs. Maybe instead we could have specific people whose job it is to analyze cases and make judgements. And maybe each case could be assigned a few people to study it and help the judge decide...
- freeloop3 9y agoAnd then what? The criminals will simply tell Coca cola to send it again and be more quiet about it this time.
- Meekro 9y agoThere are several fully-anonymous altcoins in use today. The crooks would use one of those instead.
- EGreg 9y agoWhat is the guarantee that some random extortionist is going to stop just cause you sent them money?
- whiskers08xmt 9y agoThe chance that someone would send him money a second time is very small, and the act of terrorism comes with risk of getting caught. If the extortionist is in it for the money, it doesn't make sense to continue the same scheme. It might make sense to start a new scheme, however.
- stepik777 9y agoNo, it wouldn't. First of all, it is obvious that there will be no consensus. And even if there was consensus it would be very challenging to do because deploying a hardfork takes time while criminal could transfer his money before the hardfork to a different address.
- csomar 9y agoAnother case: btce. Now turned to Wex. They got the possibility to run with users funds but instead they decided to stick around. That being said, most people are peaceful. Crime-wise, they are slightly willing to do bad things (like stealing quietly from the market). Those ready to kill or cause great damage, are not normal people and are not most people. Go to Japan and see how people behave their. America is violent and so is many places in the world. But I would not lose faith yet.
- notyourday 9y ago> That being said, most people are peaceful. Crime-wise, they are slightly willing to do bad things (like stealing quietly from the market). Those ready to kill or cause great damage, are not normal people and are not most people. That's a very lofty assertion. Most people assign a very very very high value to "avoid getting caught". Over time we have developed a system to increase probability of getting caught for any crime. Should the system fall apart, the crime spikes
- nickthemagicman 9y agoThank you for taking a reasonable perspective on this. Most humans are not slathering animals just avoiding being caught.
- cyberpunk0 9y agoIt won't make you happy but thanks to banking cartels you are force to keep obtaining it to survive. Money doesn't come to mine when people think of addiction but it's the one thing we as a global society are addicted to more than any amount of caffeine, any technology, any food, drink, drug, or chemical.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoThe existence of money isn't the problem. Unless you want to grow your own food, make your own clothes, and do your own surgery, sooner or later you're going to want something from someone else that you need to trade for, and money is a better way of dealing with that than having to hunt down someone who has what you want and will take some of your chickens or whatever in exchange.
- Hermel 9y agoIt's not entirely risk-free, as the spending of stolen or other Bitcoins of questionable origin is not trivial. Even if you use Monero or Z-Cash, regulation requires you to specify how you earned the money when cashing out. Yes, you can make something up, but you will need a good, plausible story.
- BearGoesChirp 9y agoCouldn't you taint the crytocurrency? It wouldn't be exactly something that can be done overnight, but it wouldn't be impossible. Depending upon how strongly they implement the laws, it would kill currencies that don't offer protection from being tainted.