Child abuse imagery found within bitcoin's blockchain

[specsaregood]

Researchers discover illegal content within the distributed ledger, making possession of it potentially unlawful in many countries
German researchers have discovered unknown persons are using bitcoin’s blockchain to store and link to child abuse imagery, potentially putting the cryptocurrency in jeopardy.

The blockchain is the open-source, distributed ledger that records every bitcoin transaction, but can also store small bits of non-financial data. This data is typically notes about the trade of bitcoin, recording what it was for or other metadata. But it can also be used to store links and files.

Researchers from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany found that around 1,600 files were currently stored in bitcoin’s blockchain. Of the files least eight were of sexual content, including one thought to be an image of child abuse and two that contain 274 links to child abuse content, 142 of which link to dark web services.

“Our analysis shows that certain content, eg, illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal,” the researchers wrote. “Although court rulings do not yet exist, legislative texts from countries such as Germany, the UK, or the USA suggest that illegal content such as [child abuse imagery] can make the blockchain illegal to possess for all users.”

“This especially endangers the multi-billion dollar markets powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

While the spending of bitcoin does not necessarily require a copy of the blockchain to facilitate, some processes, such as some mining techniques, require the downloading of the full blockchain or chunks of it.

“Since all blockchain data is downloaded and persistently stored by users, they are liable for any objectionable content added to the blockchain by others. Consequently, it would be illegal to participate in a blockchain-based systems as soon as it contains illegal content,” the researchers wrote.

more at link...

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...llegal-content

Well that's a darn sneaky way to make bitcoin illegal.

[kpitcher]

it's a link to child abuse images, not actually images, shouldn't be a big issue

However if someone puts copyrighted material in a transaction comment like a song lyric I wonder what would happen?

[specsaregood]

it's a link to child abuse images, not actually images, shouldn't be a big issue

However if someone puts copyrighted material in a transaction comment like a song lyric I wonder what would happen?

The article claims specifically that some images are in it, not links. They might be wrong, I don't know.

If true, it sounds like an darn ingenious way to make hosting the block chain too risky.

[dannno]

However if someone puts copyrighted material in a transaction comment like a song lyric I wonder what would happen?

I dunno, but they should definitely use Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up".

[kpitcher]

This is actually a repeat of news from 2013

https://news.bitcoin.com/no-isnt-chi...in-blockchain/

A research paper published in July 2017 titled Data Insertion in Bitcoin’s Blockchain explores this topic in more detail and explains how the coinbase data “is arbitrary and can be up to 100 bytes in size”. Only miners have the ability to insert data in this manner, and it’s typically used to signal mining support for proposed protocol changes. There are five other ways in which data can be encoded on the bitcoin blockchain, and it is the OP_RETURN option that is at the center of the child pornography story. The 2017 research paper explains that “this method is appropriate for inserting small amounts of data (or transaction metadata), but it is not suitable for large quantities of data.”

Basically you could have a hash of a web link that could lead to questionable material. 80 bytes isn't enough for a real image to be stored unless someone perhaps broke up an image into lots of tiny parts requiring specialized software to piece it back together - like how files are on newsgroups.

More sensational FUD against BTC

[Mordan]

this FUD is necessary to teach the masses a lesson...

Use fiat inside a bank.

it's safer.