Vitalik Buterin, one in all the co-founders of Ethereum, has sounded the alarm over several emerging threats to technological freedoms and, by extension, plenty of the crypto community’s core values.
In a blog post, Buterin warned against political attacks on encrypted messaging, centralized identity systems, and insecure operating systems, and growing power of a couple of social media platforms and dominant countries to censor and deplatform people all all over the world.
Encrypted Messaging Under Attack
Buterin’s first concern is that political attacks on encrypted messaging are picking up steam. He believes that the correct to personal conversation is a fundamental one, and it was one in all the tenets of the cypherpunk ethos underpinning the crypto movement. Governments worldwide have ratcheted up threats against messaging services to weaken their encryption or add backdoors on the potential risk to user privacy.
One other thing I might add, is that we should always all agree that finance *isn’t enough*. There are sooooo many centralization points which might be rapidly growing and threats on this planet’s technology today:
* Ongoing political attacks on encrypted messaging
* Centralized identity…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 25, 2024
Centralized Identity And Credit Scores
He further warns that the rise of centralized identity systems with credit scores will end up broadly corrosive to individual autonomy. These systems are harmful in that they put the ability concentrated within the hands of only a few entities who can further use them to surveil, control, and even discriminate against residents on the idea of their digital profiles.
Insecure Operating Systems And Backdoors
One other threat Buterin identified was that proprietary operating systems are bug-ridden and stuffed with backdoors. The explanation, he argues, is that having closed-source software means it’s less secure and more feasible to take advantage of for various actors, including governments. Buterin believes that what is definitely required is the large adoption of open source, auditable operating systems to be able to avoid these risks.
Social Media Censorship And Centralization
Buterin warns of the very trend of accelerating power of social media platforms to censor and deplatform at will, bending to the whim of governments. He criticizes the undeniable fact that opacity and centralization characterize social media algorithms, which permit them to be utilized in shaping information and public discourse.
Buterin specifically expresses the view that the online has been overcome by strong nations, which created geopolitical chokepoints which will shut down people or organizations internationally. He treats this trend as an undermining of the decentralized, worldwide aspect of the web; taking away individual liberties by threatening freedom of expression and access to information is at stake here.
Ethereum: Centralized AI And Mind-Reading Tech
Finally, Buterin warns that if centralized AI and BCIs get into the flawed hands, they will probably be very dangerous. The aforementioned will conduct unprecedented surveillance, deplatforming, and economic domination. As such, Buterin asks for a development of decentralized, privacy-preserving AI and BCI solutions in order that the risks could a minimum of be mitigated.
Buterin’s warnings underline how essential defending technological liberties is within the face of those emerging dangers. He feels that the crypto community must take a proactive stance in touting values that gave birth to Bitcoin and Ethereum: privacy, decentralization, and individual autonomy.
Featured image from FutureCIO, chart from TradingView