Security News > 2021 > March > Illegal Content and the Blockchain

Now the content-delivery network Akamai has reported on a new method: a botnet that uses the Bitcoin blockchain ledger.

Blockchains are a type of "Distributed ledger": a record of all transactions since the beginning, and everyone using the blockchain needs to have access to - and reference - a copy of it.

What if someone puts illegal material in the blockchain? Either everyone has a copy of it, or the blockchain's security fails.

People started noticing all sorts of things embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain.

Anyone can put information in the one and only Bitcoin blockchain.

EDITED TO ADD: A research paper on erasing data from Bitcoin blockchain.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/03/illegal-content-and-the-blockchain.html