What are the unstoppable ways to use the blockchain?
How can things become distorted when an anonymous code hurts people and people are unable to stop it? The two film masters provide us with devastating answers and many things worth thinking about
Dr. Strangelove (1965). In Stanley Kubrick a classic novel that occurred during the peak of the Cold War an American general lost his mind and ordered a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. After the bomber took off it would throw a nuclear bomb two hours later but the US government could not stop them. When the United States’ hopes of stopping the air strikes shattered the president called the Soviets to warn them and provided the location and targets of the bombers. Sadly the Soviet ambassador later revealed that the Soviet Union has been running a computer-controlled "end of the world device" for a long time when any nuclear strike against the Soviet Union the device will automatically detonate a series of highly radioactive bombs. The bomb will destroy all life on earth. This device cannot be turned off. In fact it was originally designed to prevent someone from trying to tamper with it.
Black Mirror S03 E03 (2016). Shut Up And Dance is probably the most disturbing episode in Black Mirror. According to Wikipedia it tells the story of a teenage boy being blackmailed by a mysterious hacker who was forced to commit a weird and sinful act. The hacker also held a video of his masturbation. The boy was with a middle-aged man and was also extorted by the hacker for his infidelity. The dance of the Black Letter is the essence of "Black Mirror" it is full of darkness and discomfort but it is highly recommended to watch.
If you use code to extort why not be a smart contract? Is it possible to post harmful programs to the blockchain and always exist there? Close your eyes and use your imagination! By 2030 the world has become the host of code data and physical devices. They are not subject to external regulation and are endowed with extreme capabilities that bring the creator's fall or evil to the extreme. Here are some disturbing scenarios that may arise
Uncontrolled illegal market Silk Road is a breakthrough in anonymous exchanges driven by Bitcoin. Its biggest weakness (and one of the causes of its decline) is its dependence on mail. In the future a hybrid network of drones and humans initiated by anonymous organizations and supported by market dynamics will provide programmable delivery services. With such an infrastructure a black market like Silk Road can be built using only smart contracts. They can then deliver the entire supply chain of physical goods in a way that is very difficult to block or track from user interface to payment to fulfillment (even to merchants). Just as BitTorrent (BBT download) gives Napster (a P2P music sharing service) wings these networks will also allow illegal markets such as Silk Road to spread.
Blackmail Now people can easily find a home address in a leaked database. A hacker can write a smart contract rent an armed drone or robot and send it to the victim's home. Unless the victim scans the QR code and pays a certain amount of cryptocurrency in a short period of time the armed drone or robot can be life-threatening or damage the property.
Money laundering The proceeds of illegal activities can be transferred from one cryptocurrency to another through decentralized transactions without the need for a KYC mechanism (as far as I know most current dispersing transactions do not require KYC). The privacy currency (ZCash) is directly in place and even if it meets KYC requirements it is almost impossible to track the source of each coin. If hackers use the spirit of local Bitcoin to create an uncontrollable illicit market (as described above) and send a drone to the corner to collect your cash then it is possible to go from anonymous cash to encrypted transactions.
Assassination of the market Once there is enough identity and real-time biometric data on the blockchain we can see that the assassination market appears on smart contracts. Assassins can bet on funds to convey confidence in the outcome and continue to commit crimes. Once the public chain confirms that the victim has stopped heartbeat (or confirmed by video via a drone) the smart contract will reward the assassin.
Unstoppable Content Network It's easy to imagine how the Anti-Census File System (Storj) and Anti-Census VPN System (Orchid) combine to produce host and consume illegal content (insert your favorite illegal content types here).
Decentralized Autonomous Criminal Organization (DACO) DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) can help hacker groups "integrate" for DACO (Decentralized Autonomous Crime Organization) to use DAO's autonomy Raise funds communicate anonymously vote and launch any number of malicious programs. In the long run members will share the profits of these plans for a long time.
Just like a malicious AI as long as someone can benefit from blockchain viruses and DACOs and maintain their surrounding markets they can have their own lives. In order to prevent viruses and DACO from raging in the blockchain economy what can we do? The answer is not simple but here are some ideas
Blockchain built-in governance Blockchains like Tezos try to raise awareness of governance themes but when it comes to controversial or malicious contracts they and Ethereum have not passed the test of time. Manual review and voting is an effective way to eliminate reported malicious content. As the industry matures blockchain “anti-virus” and mandatory code reviews may come later.
Bifurcation If pre-determined blockchain governance does not eliminate some of the bad content the community can hard-fork the network into a cleaner version (just like the ETC in the Ethereum after the DAO attack). However forks are too expensive for ecosystems. What's more as long as someone (even 5% of the original ecosystem) sees the economic benefits of serving “blockchain viruses” these viruses can find the infrastructure to operate.
Regulatory enforcement The above example proves once again that in the long run the government and the blockchain are in conflict and the blockchain funds are just like the canaries in the coal mines. As the case of Silk Road proves a proactive government is the ultimate actor in protecting our world. The key to preventing many but not all blockchain viruses is to control the infrastructure especially when it comes to physical devices and online and offline information exchange. If countries want to eliminate blockchain viruses and DACOs in their infancy they should strictly control real-world information flow to blockchain codes (such as biometric data video or transactions from banking systems). They may also want to control Crypto-to-Fiat transactions (centralized transactions are currently facing problems that banks have encountered but in the long run compliant centralized transactions may be the government's best assistant). Finally they should work hard to decide which physical infrastructure to provide through the blockchain (whether it should allow people to start a smart contract-controlled secondary network or smart contract-controlled 3D printing service?)
Offensive defense Active network defense is an emerging weapon in traditional network security. Can we run network code and devices (whether on the blockchain or not) to proactively monitor confront and mislead hackers? Who will fund the operations of these networks?
Will an unstoppable open market-driven network become a nightmare anarchy? Do law enforcement officers have the right skills and skills for such a world? The real world battlefield of the future may not be the kind of hero with a sports car gadget or super power but a genius programmer in a virtual cat and mouse game.