## Principles Seminar v0 **Session 3 - Censorship-resistance** Oskar, 2018-10-10 --- ## II. Censorship-resistance > We enable free flow of information. No content is under surveillance. We abide by the cryptoeconomic design principle of censorship resistance. Even stronger, Status is an agnostic platform for information. --- ## What is censorship? - Discriminatory treatment of information - Layers: transactions, network, social - Goal: make it costly --- ## Examples - Wikileaks financial blockade (VISA, Paypal, etc) - Internet outage during protests - WeChat, FB, YT, subreddits... --- ## Decentralized web - Largely what Web3 etc enables - Huge competitive advantage - Let's use it! --- ## Freedom of speech > I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall (The Friends of Voltaire) Censorship-resistance is a prerequisite. --- ## Cryptoeconomic design? Use cryptography and economic incentives to raise cost of censorship. Mostly about transactions in Ethereum, but also tool for making our network harder to censor. --- ## Single points of failure - Pressure point, just poke a little - Related: coercion-resistance - E.g. reliance on: Infura, etherscan, cluster, etc. --- ## Agnostic platform - Literally: *don't know* (double meaning) - Not our role to decide; battle of ideas - Abiding by quote on Voltaire --- In the war between true and false, the false lose by being false, not censored. (also see Streisand effect) --- ## Pairing and wall of shame Up to you. - Idea Generator 1: List pairings and think about positive and negative interactions. - Idea Generator 2: Think like adversary - how can Status be censored? --- ## Thanks