Reuters reported that “researchers in Germany have found hundreds of links to child sexual abuse imagery on Bitcoin blockchain.” This revelation could mark out the blockchain as illegal.
The circulation of child pornography has been a challenge that is almost difficult to rid the net of them entirely. With the internet, it’s effortless for such material to go viral, making it practically impossible to control or delete permanently. Beyond these, the victims themselves face a lifelong stigma and confrontation with the abuse they have suffered. The circulation, consumption, and production of such gory images are criminal offenses, punishable by law.
As such, these files discovered in blockchain, the digital ledger of cryptocurrency transactions, violate privacy laws. The discovery includes eight data with sexual content; two of the files were interlinks to over 200 other links to sexual abuse imagery.
Notably, the discovery also implicates other cryptocurrency traders in dogecoin, etherium, litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. There has been an intense crackdown on cryptocurrencies; they are unregulated, and many criminals use them for transactions because of the anonymity feature it provides. This has led to falling in the value of bitcoin and its other siblings since the end of 2017. Should the issue of pornography become a fresh scandal, coin traders would be implicated in breaking the law. The University academics said:
“Although court rulings do not exist, legislative texts from countries such as Germany, the UK or the US suggest that illegal content such as this can make the blockchain illegal to possess for all users. As of now, this can affect at least 112 countries in which possessing content such as child pornography is illegal. This especially endangers the multi-billion-dollar powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”
Also discovered among the digital detritus were viruses and malware but about 90% of them were seamlessly harmless. They contained picture files and safe short messages.
Interpol already warned in 2015 that blockchain technology could be misused someday by criminals who would inject inappropriate files “with no means of wiping it.” He reiterated further that other varieties of cryptocurrencies should also be probed.
