Hundreds Of Links To Child Pornography Found In Bitcoin’s Blockchain

Despite its recent fall in value, folks all around the world still seem to be interested in Bitcoin, but researchers have found things hidden in the cryptocurrency’s digital framework that could spell the end of it altogether.

German researchers say they’ve found hundreds of links to child pornography in Bitcoin’s blockchain, and in some instances, inappropriate image files where the subject is underage.

For those who are still a little hazy on what blockchain is, it’s essentially the backbone on which a digital currency is built. It’s an un-hackable decentralised ledger that records all transactions that take place on the network. I wrote a bit of an explainer on it which you can suss out at the link below.

While the blockchain’s primary function is to keep a record of what’s happening, it also allows users to leave coded messages. Most of them are just weird bits of junk, like the one left by Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, which reads, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

“While most of this content is harmless, there is also content to be considered objectionable in many jurisdictions, e.g., the depiction of nudity of a young woman or hundreds of links to child pornography,” the RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University paper read.

“As a result, it could become illegal (or even already is today) to possess the blockchain, which is required to participate in Bitcoin.”

That’s right, possessing Bitcoin could be illegal because to own Bitcoin, you must hold a copy of its blockchain, which as we now know, contains child pornography.

This isn’t the first time it’s been pointed out, either. People first started noticing links to child pornography back in 2013, but this is the first time it’s been quantified by researchers, who were able to identify 1,600 instances where transactions included non-financial information.

The discovery could be a massive setback for development of the cryptocurrency.


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