eToro reports Bitcoin SV blockchain used to pedal child abuse pictures; Craig Wright hits back

The chief scientist at nChain and vocal proponent of Bitcoin SV, better known as Satoshi’s Vision, was quick to hit back at eToro, after the latter, through The Next Web’s sub-brand “Hard Fork,” had accused BSV’s blockchain of being used to pedal child abuse pictures.

On February 4, the technology and business-centric website reported that Bitcoin SV’s community members increased the data accepted in transactions, allowing media files like audio, video, and images to be stored on the coin’s blockchain.

It further reported that Money Button, a payment app on the BSV network had processed a transaction which “uploaded” the image in question on the site. Given the immutable nature of Bitcoin SV, the image will remain on the blockchain, until a hardfork is initiated, reported the website.

A “spokesperson” told the website:

“Almost certainly, whoever posted this was trying to prove a point about inserting something illegal into the blockchain, since that content can never be removed.”

Jimmy Nguyen, the CEO of nChain stated that in light of this unfortunate incident, there may always be a chance that a culprit would use the blockchain to transmit illegal information. However, he also said that limited the data that could be carried was not the solution to the problem.

He stated:

“The answer does not lie in limiting the data capacity of the platform. Instead, responsible service providers operating on the BSV blockchain will take measures to prevent writing to or reading from the blockchain any content that is illegal.”

Nguyen further added that prior to unloading any sort of content on the blockchain, users are required to digitally sign in their data.

He added:

“Those digital signatures are admissible in courts of law to prove possession of illicit material and intent to distribute.”

Craig Wright wasted no time in replying to The Next Web’s piece, suggesting that the website is unnecessarily singling Bitcoin SV out, when the same is true for Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] as well.

In a tweet, posted a day after the original article was published, Wright demanded an “extraction” of the same. Furthermore, he added that the Financial Service Authority [FSA], the chief regulator of the United Kingdom will be dragged into the matter if need be.

His tweet in full read:

“I am giving @eTorro the opportunity to retract this statement and apologise formally. The facts are, this is a claim on BTC AND ETH etc as well. The issue is extraction. If not, we will have to look at action and to involve the FSA.”

The editor of Hard Fork, Dimitar Mihov responded to Wright’s tweet confirming the content of the article and Jimmy Nguyen’s acceptance that people could use the blockchain for illicit activities like the one reported.

Craig Wright launched a tirade of tweets to this, the most prominent of which read:

“The extraction of the illicit data (and for that matter the indexing of such) is a problem, but this is something outside of the Blockchain. ETH and BTC are both known to have illicit material on them. So does Twitter and Facebook. The law accounts for this and allows OSPs that do not filter and transmit in no knowledge of what is incorporated are not liable. Commercial nodes are protected. The idea of a “full validating node” could be at risk. But, ones that are OSPs is not.”