Topic: Bitcoin, blockchain, ethics and good causes? (Read 231 times)

Thanks for your reply, Eddie. Apologies for the much delayed response!

Yes, I come from a background in philosophy of medicine and am interested in ethics, human rights and the blockchain - especially how blockchain could be used to further ethical causes such as responsible research based on patient records. Much of this data is not being used due to privacy concerns and legislation, and the hope is that such privacy concerns could be reduced or eliminated through the use of blockchain technologies (thus freeing up data for research purposes and advancing medicine).

This wouldn't necessarily have to be from a leftist position -- data owners could be compensated for the use of their data, ie. people could be given control over their medical information, and they could then decide to donate it, keep it private, or charge data buyers for its use.

Re: Hallucinogens, there are some interesting studies on psilocybin and spirituality as well as mental well-being. For example, the respected medical journal Lancet Psychiatry carried this study relatively recently (source: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(16)30065-7/abstract):

"Relative to baseline, depressive symptoms were markedly reduced 1 week (mean QIDS difference −11·8, 95% CI −9·15 to −14·35, p=0·002, Hedges' g=3·1) and 3 months (−9·2, 95% CI −5·69 to −12·71, p=0·003, Hedges' g=2) after high-dose treatment. Marked and sustained improvements in anxiety and anhedonia were also noted."

They concluded that their study provided "preliminary support for the safety and efficacy of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and motivates further trials, with more rigorous designs, to better examine the therapeutic potential of this approach."

An earlier study, from 2006 (source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/griffithspsilocybin.pdf), found that:

"At 2 months, the volunteers rated the psilocybin experience as having substantial personal meaning and spiritual significance and attributed to the experience sus- tained positive changes in attitudes and behavior consistent with changes rated by community observers."

"When administered under supportive conditions," these authors concluded,  "psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences. The ability to occasion such experiences prospectively will allow rigorous scientific investigations of their causes and consequences."

This kind of research is much harder to do than it ought to be, due to the illegal nature of psychedelics (which is based on politics, not science). That's why this otherwise fascinating area of research is still in its infancy.

Yes, that's definitely what I'm talking about -- and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! I am interested in the possibility of using smart contracts for public purposes - public health, public education, human rights &c. but also in how ethics might benefit blockchain (rather than the other way around) -- to give just one example, by noting how much latent talent is not realized in the community due to the skew towards males in the community (which could lead to benefits from the community for reaching out to female talent).

I will have a look around the forums you recommended - thanks again for your help!

I see what you are getting at here..
Could you explain your exact interest?
It seems blockchain related medical records, anonymizing the patient?, especially reated to psycology?

You seem to make some educated posts and I was curious as to why you make so many off topic posts but now that I catch the psychology background it makes sense..


Be careful, depending on the source of this education you could easily succumb to the evils of extreme leftism, thus defeating the entire purpose..


I have come across some interesting reading on hallucinogen experiences being effective cures for depression..
Basically trip balls good a time or 2 a year or so..

Given your background I would be interested to hear about your opinion on that matter..


Back to ethics..


Anything you post on the internet is only as private as you make it.. Especially things that are immutable, like good blockchains, or certain posts/records/wayback/archives, that cannot be reversed..
You get into the crypto world, everything you have ever posted online, or has ever been posted about you online, your DOX, it's all fair game if you become interesting enough to the right people..


You might call this stalking, some call it vetting, but you will be dealing with the best internet stalkers/detectives in the world around here so conduct yourself accordingly, ethics..
Not you specifically but if you act unethically depending on severity you could land yourself in some hurt..

For example, you having such a new account and making interesting posts someone like me might check out your post history a bit.. See what you are up to..
New accounts posting with a level of experience are interesting in that often they will be someone posting in disguise..
Lending habit I suppose..

Blockchain ethics.. Anything you write to the blockchain is also fair game, you have expert blockchain detectives running around here too..
Anything that can be connected will be connected.. Another form of stalking? Perfectly ethical..  

Crypto is like the wild west, it takes you back to when a mans word was his bond, when a handshake sealed contracts, and a mans name was one of his most valuable possessions that he took good care to keep clean and defend.. + a bit of anarchy..

In most crypto deals the terms will be spoken and agreed upon and you can be sure each party will keep this conversation as a record if it is not public to begin with..
Check out the common procedures in lending where terms will be signed by a person's pgp or BTC crypto related identity and posts will be quoted etc. all for a publicly transparent contract, loan terms.. I't like covering your ass with fine print..
You can also look into how to use cryptography to secure your identity.. From satoshi proving himself by moving genesis block coins to staking your address, the ultimate ways to prove you are speaking on behalf of your identity..  Really a public key is your identity moreso than your name..

All parties keep their word in the deal, if not, evidence will be brought forward to the authorities or community, then depending on the severity of the breach of contract the offender could face repercussions from his reputation being destroyed up to contacting the appropriate law enforcement if a true identity is available..

If you do not trust the party you are dealing with directly then you should use a trusted escrow, such as OGNasty.. Then you can both trust him and both do all your contracting stuff through him so if any parties breach the terms then the escrow can be trusted to identify the offending party and reverse the deal depending on how it is set up..


If you want to keep a good strong name/reputation their are a lot of ethical things to keep in mind but most are common sense..
Just always to the right thing no matter if you could profit, never lie or slander others, if you bring forward a case against another person you better make sure you can prove it, stuff like that.. Be an honest citizen..

Like I said before their a few gotchas that may not be 100% common sense right off the bat such as..

Don't ask for loans without offering collateral OR HAVING ENOUGH REPUTATION to conservatively cover the loan..
So if you have a good name you can get maybe a $1,000 no collateral loan but if you ask for more than your reputation warrants then it will damage your reputation, severely even if you are persistant..
If your name/reputation is new then even asking for a $5 loan will ruin your new name..

DO NOT refuse to use a reasonable escrow, you can refuse a certain escrow but you better be willing to use atleast a couple of the most common ones..
Even if you have a great reputation you should never refuse a reasonable escrow at the other parties expense..

It is reasonable at times even for a borrower to put his collateral in the hands of an escrow if he does not trust the lender directly..

Do not offer to be escrow if your reputation doesn't conservatively cover the amount.. Just don't offer escrow if you don't know what you are doing..

Pretty much do not try to do anything that would put you in the position where you could easily scam someone..
Don't try to get people to send first.. If you ever are about to get into the position where you could easily scam someone you should mention the option to escrow the transaction..


Reputation is a strange thing also because doing things just attempting to build your reputation, will damage your reputation..
Don't take a bunch of loans just to get reputation.. Never ask for reputation..
Quite the opposite of the credit system really, if you ask for a small loan here to build credit it will pretty much destroy your credit usually unsalvagably..


It's a lot of stuff and things..
Is that more to the point of what you are looking for?

Now, more than ever before is a time to be thinking about cryptocurrencies. Over the past few years, cryptocurrency has grown exponentially because of its attractiveness to people looking to use this alternative money. Bitcoin, the best known of the new cryptocurrencies, is one of those words surrounded by automatic buzz, in part because everyone's so excited about its potential.

Thank you so much for your post. I appreciate the point of looking at existing disputes, which I am doing on an on-going basis. I was just hoping to hear what people's reactions might be to more general questions of the correct conduct in the crypto world and any problems that might be unique to crypto.

Go read a lot of threads in scam accusations and reputation to see plenty examples of ethics being broken and it will give you a good idea what ethics are..
For example a strange ethic.. Don't escrow your own alt accounts account sales..

Read the drama, there you will find ethics..

Also, compare upstanding members here to other long time users that have had their reputations wiped out to see what sort of ethics will keep you in the good guys club or boot you to red paint club..


Regulation? NO
Don't need no hand holding.. We need the freest market possible and darwinism..
People need to learn their own lessons, the hard way if they aren't bright enough to look before they leap..

Serious question: Have you ever experienced a serious moral issue in your work with blockchain-related technologies/bitcoin?

I'm an academic from another field and am very much interested in ethics and the blockchain. It seems to me that blockchain technologies can facilitate and help all kinds of good causes, but also that the insights of great thinkers over the past millennia might help smooth the interaction between those in the know and those in the general public.

I'd love to hear your views on either or all or another of the following topics:

- Have you ever thought about ethics in a blockchain-related context?
- Have you ever seen something occur in a blockchain-related context which you considered to be immoral, if not illegal?
- If so, would you mind sharing some details? (all anonymous please)
- What do you think are the most important ethical implications or features of bitcoin and the cryptographic/computing technologies that underlie it?
- If you were in a position to regulate some potentially harmful aspects of a certain app or even the blockchain itself, what would you do, if anything?
- How do you think these problems can be resolved?
- Is there an implicit code of conduct in the community?
- How are disputes usually settled?
- Anything else you find important !
- What are some current examples of ethical and unethical conduct/use cases?
- How can we prevent unethical use cases? Or encourage ethical ones?

Thank you so much in advance for anybody willing to take the time!