#58: Human intervention of tech

💎 Word gems

Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web’s Biggest Child Abuse Site (Wired / Andy Greenberg)

This was a harrowing but excellent read.

It starts in the world of crypto, explaining how in spite of the claimed ‘anonymity’ of blockchain, everything is laid bare in public:

The blockchain ensures that coins can’t be forged or spent more than once. But it does so by making everyone in the Bitcoin economy a witness to every transaction. Every criminal payment is, in some sense, a smoking gun in broad daylight.

But the article exposes the scale of sickening abuse that was happening online, and the team that took them down:

As Janczewski and Gambaryan analyzed the site’s mechanics, they saw that users could obtain points not just by purchasing them but also by uploading videos. The more those videos were subsequently downloaded by other users, the more points they would earn. “Do not upload adult porn,” the upload page instructed, the last two words highlighted in red for emphasis. The page also warned that uploaded videos would be checked for uniqueness; only new material would be accepted—a feature that, to the agents, seemed expressly designed to encourage more abuse of children.

Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’ (Washington Post / Taylor Lorenz)

On a weirder note: algospeak. It’s another example of unintended consequences. This time from algorithm biases. What I find most interesting is how casually it (yet again) signals that a few companies are becoming the de facto arbiters of online communication.

Algospeak refers to code words or turns of phrase users have adopted in an effort to create a brand-safe lexicon that will avoid getting their posts removed or down-ranked by content moderation systems. For instance, in many online videos, it’s common to say “unalive” rather than “dead,” “SA” instead of “sexual assault,” or “spicy eggplant” instead of “vibrator.”

Elon is Right: Twitter Should Open Up the Algorithm (Divinations / Nathan Baschez)

You’ve probably read about the Elon x Twitter shitshow. Putting all of that aside for a moment, there’s something that feels genuinely like a novel product idea here: letting users choose between multiple algorithms in the one platform.

I don’t think changing the algorithm solves any of Twitter’s problems, but it’s starting to feel like an outdated idea that there must be One Algorithm To Rule Them All for a platform.

So, in Twitter’s case, what is core? Is it the algorithm? I don’t think so. What’s most important for Twitter is that people have to send their tweets to them in order for other people to see them, and that if you want to see tweets from people you know you have to go to Twitter to get them. The highest strategic imperative is to remain the central gate that communication must pass through. This is what gives them the right to serve ads. As long as they don’t commoditize the database of tweets and users, then it makes sense to increase the supply of algorithms that users rely on to get value every day from that database.

Is Crypto Re-Creating the 2008 Financial Crisis? (Galaxy Brain / Charlie Warzel)

This was one of the best insights into the systemic problems associated with crypto.

The whole article is worth a read, but, if there’s one thing to takeaway: human intervention is a good thing.

I’ve definitely heard that a selling point of DeFi is that it gets rid of the need for bailouts. And yes: I’ve had people accuse me on this point of shilling for big banks, and it’s just not true. If you’re asking me to choose, I’d absolutely rather see a bailout that prevents broader, sustained economic chaos than not. And the reason for that isn’t because I care about protecting executives at banks. In all my work, I’m speaking for the people downwind of all of this. The already vulnerable people who end up being hurt the most by financial collapse. In the case of DeFi being interwoven with our greater economy, these would be the people who are not investing in crypto but could still be hurt by a collapse. That’s the viewpoint I represent. And for those people, bailouts are the best outcome, even if they’re unpopular.

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