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RE: Why I am optimistic about the STEEM platform

in #steemit8 years ago (edited)

Yes but in the end, images and text and anything else is still binary. It is how you interpret it that matters. For any image, you can open that in notepad and you will see the ASCII equivalent. It won't mean anything, but it is still there.

This is not to say you can "host images" in the traditional sense on the blockchain. It is not practically possible. I am just saying that there is binary content on the blockchain, and that is what matters.

For example if you were a criminal and wanted to put a traditionally illegal image on the blockchain, you could open that image in a text editor, copy that content, paste it into a steemit.com post. Then you could tell other criminals to look at the post, copy and paste that content into notepad, and save it with an image extension (the same one as before) and then open it in mspaint or whatever. It would work. If this were to be used on a larger scale, someone could even write a blockchain explorer app that would automate it.

I know this seems kind of "out there," but criminals will go to great lengths to do things. Also, someone wanting to sabotage the system would precisely want to store the data in a obfuscated way. Image this kind of thing going on for years, and then finally it is revealed. A hard fork would be very difficult to do (but still possible after extensive forensic review and alterations).