Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, has sounded the alarm about several emerging threats to technological freedoms, and thus a number of the cryptocurrency community’s core values.
In a blog post, Buterin warned of political attacks on encrypted messaging, centralized identity systems, insecure operating systems, and the growing power of a few social media platforms and dominant states to censor and ban people around the world.
Encrypted messages are under attack
Buterin’s first concern is that political attacks on encrypted messaging are gaining momentum. He believes the right to private conversation is a fundamental right, and it was one of the tenets of the cryptography philosophy that underpins Encryption movement. Governments around the world have stepped up their threats to messaging services, aiming to weaken their encryption or add backdoors that could potentially compromise user privacy.
Another thing I would like to add is that we all have to agree that funding is not enough. There are several rapidly growing and threatening centralities in today’s technology world:
* Ongoing political attacks on encrypted messages
* Central identity…— Vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 25, 2024
Central Identity and Credit Scores
He also warns that the rise of centralized identity systems based on credit scores will lead to a widespread erosion of individual autonomy. These systems are harmful because they put power in the hands of a very small number of entities that can increasingly use them to monitor, control, and even discriminate against citizens based on their digital profiles.
Insecure operating systems and backdoors
Another threat Buterin pointed to is that proprietary operating systems are buggy and full of vulnerabilities. He believes this is because closed-source software means it is less secure and more vulnerable to exploitation by various actors, including governments. Buterin believes that what is really needed is the mass adoption of open-source, auditable operating systems in order to avoid these risks.
Social media censorship and centralization
Buterin warns of the growing power of social media platforms to censor and deplatform at will, and to submit to the whims of governments. He criticizes the fact that social media algorithms are opaque and centralized, allowing them to be used in Information Shaping and Public Discourse.
Buterin specifically expresses the view that the Internet has been overrun by powerful states, creating geopolitical choke points that can shut people or organizations out around the world. He views this trend as undermining the global decentralized aspect of the Internet; the erosion of individual freedoms through threats to freedom of expression and access to information is at stake here.
Ethereum: Centralized AI and Mind Reading Technology
Finally, Buterin warns that if centralization is implemented, Artificial Intelligence and Brain-Computer Interfaces In the wrong hands, these devices would pose a huge risk. The above-mentioned devices would enable unprecedented surveillance, deplatforming, and economic dominance. As such, Buterin advocates the development of privacy-preserving AI and brain-computer interfaces to at least mitigate the risks.
Buterin’s warnings underscore the importance of defending technological freedoms in the face of these emerging risks. Buterin argues that the crypto community needs to take a proactive stance in promoting the values that gave birth to Bitcoin and Ethereum: privacy, decentralization, and individual autonomy.
Featured image by FutureCIO, chart by TradingView
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