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The ability to store arbitrary data on these widely replicated blockchains raises some serious legal questions. What if someone puts illegal information on the

The ability to store arbitrary data on these widely replicated blockchains raises some serious legal questions. What if someone puts illegal information on the blockchain (e.g. nuclear secrets, child porn)? Even if some level of mens rea is required convictions, that is usually set at "reckless" (meaning that you were aware of the risk but acted anyway). Once there's a high-profile child-porn-on-the-blockchain case, it would be very hard to argue that you weren't at least aware of the risk that such information might be there. Even if the mens rea requirement is "knowing", that will still be a problem, as bitcoin miners and other savvy cryptocurrency actors would have a hard time claiming ignorance of the immutable nature of the blockchain.

vortico 9y ago
Interesting question. For Bitcoin it would be difficult because of the small amount of data (except for maybe 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0), but what about i2p, IPFS, etc?
- philipodonnell 9y ago
  There is a cost, but larger pieces of data can be broken into chunks and stored on the blockchain. Some types of data are considered breaking the law to possess it, regardless of whether it was intentional or how it was acquired. Can data broken up like that can be said to be in your possession if it is never recombined? What if you don't know how to recombine it but a prosecutor does? What if it is known to be recombinable but no one knows how to recombine it? Most blockchain people I talk to are worryingly dismissive of this as a potential issue, including lawyers.
  - dane-pgp 9y ago
    Those questions are very thought-provoking, and here are a few more: * What if someone with access to your house/bag/coat slips in a Micro SD card with an illegal file on it? * What if you download a large video file as a torrent and it contains an illegal file embedded steganographically within it? * What if your computer is storing a large, possibly random-looking, file, and someone can produce a "one time pad" which, when XORed with that file, produces an illegal file?
mathgeek 9y ago
Is that very different from publishing the same data on a torrent?
martey 9y ago
https://fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings/6.pdf https://fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings/6.pdf > Based on these insights, we conduct a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of unintended content on Bitcoin’s blockchain. Although most data originates from benign extensions to Bitcoin’s protocol, our analysis reveals more than 1600 files on the blockchain, over 99 % of which are texts or images. Among these files there is clearly objectionable content such as links to child pornography, which is distributed to all Bitcoin participants.
stale2002 9y ago
There is porn within the digits of pi. That doesn't mean that hosting website with X number of digits of pi is illegal. POINTING to the exact digits of pi, and telling the audience the decoding method, that points to thr illegal porn, or content would get you in trouble though.

vortico 9y ago

Interesting question. For Bitcoin it would be difficult because of the small amount of data (except for maybe 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0), but what about i2p, IPFS, etc?

philipodonnell 9y ago
There is a cost, but larger pieces of data can be broken into chunks and stored on the blockchain. Some types of data are considered breaking the law to possess it, regardless of whether it was intentional or how it was acquired. Can data broken up like that can be said to be in your possession if it is never recombined? What if you don't know how to recombine it but a prosecutor does? What if it is known to be recombinable but no one knows how to recombine it? Most blockchain people I talk to are worryingly dismissive of this as a potential issue, including lawyers.
- dane-pgp 9y ago
  Those questions are very thought-provoking, and here are a few more: * What if someone with access to your house/bag/coat slips in a Micro SD card with an illegal file on it? * What if you download a large video file as a torrent and it contains an illegal file embedded steganographically within it? * What if your computer is storing a large, possibly random-looking, file, and someone can produce a "one time pad" which, when XORed with that file, produces an illegal file?

mathgeek 9y ago

Is that very different from publishing the same data on a torrent?

martey 9y ago

https://fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings/6.pdf https://fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings/6.pdf > Based on these insights, we conduct a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of unintended content on Bitcoin’s blockchain. Although most data originates from benign extensions to Bitcoin’s protocol, our analysis reveals more than 1600 files on the blockchain, over 99 % of which are texts or images. Among these files there is clearly objectionable content such as links to child pornography, which is distributed to all Bitcoin participants.

stale2002 9y ago

There is porn within the digits of pi. That doesn't mean that hosting website with X number of digits of pi is illegal. POINTING to the exact digits of pi, and telling the audience the decoding method, that points to thr illegal porn, or content would get you in trouble though.