Bitcoin’s Blockchain Contains Links To Child Pornography – German University Research
New research has revealed that the bitcoin blockchain contains links to child pornography websites and a possible image of a “mildly nude” minor.
Researchers at Germany’s RWTH Aachen University and the Data Protection Research Institute at Goethe University in Frankfurt found 1600 files, including texts and images, on blockchain. Among the data were instances of illegal pornography and serious privacy violations.
“Bitcoin’s blockchain contains at least eight files with sexual content,” the researchers said. “While five files only show, describe, or link to mildly pornographic content, we consider the remaining three instances objectionable for almost all jurisdictions: Two of them are backups of link lists to child pornography, containing 274 links to websites, 142 of which refer to Tor hidden services. The remaining instance is an image depicting mild nudity of a young woman.”
The researchers said that the analysis shows that certain content, e.g., illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal. According to the paper, 112 countries prohibit the possession of child pornography and of those countries, many have other restrictions that prohibit the distribution of that kind of material.
“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 pornography can make the blockchain illegal to possess for all users,” the report said. “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 markets powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”
The researchers identified five categories of content that may cause problems for anyone storing the blockchain: copyright violations; malware; privacy violations; politically sensitive content; and illegal and condemned content. They said this is the first categorization of objectionable content and survey of potential risks for users if such content enters the blockchain.
The researchers also uncovered six wedding-related images, 609 transactions containing public chat logs, emails, and forum posts discussing bitcoin and money laundering in addition to backups of WikiLeaks data.
The researchers suggest that bitcoin’s blockchain can also be loaded with malware. Interpol previously warned that malware could be injected and hosted on the blockchain, with the chain potentially becoming a ‘safe haven’ for sharing child pornography.
“Despite potential benefits of data in the blockchain, insertion of objectionable content can put all participants of the bitcoin network at risk, as such unwanted content is unchangeable and locally replicated by each peer of the bitcoin network as benign data,” the researchers said.
Roman Matzutt, a researcher with RWTH Aachen University and one of the co-authors of the paper, said the problem also exists with other blockchains that allow content to be inserted, such as Litecoin and ethereum.
“We did not yet investigate more privacy-aware blockchain systems such as Monero or the upcoming Mimblewimble,” he said. “Such blockchains need further investigation with respect to how easily identifiers that appear on the blockchain can be manipulated.”
