Augur’s Joey Krug Feedback On Assassination Markets

Shortly after Augur’s launch, some customers created cryptocurrency-settled assassination markets. Because the Augur protocol exists on the Ethereum blockchain, {the marketplace} exists throughout many computer systems. Due to Augur’s decentralization, regulation enforcement might battle to close down these morbid and extremely unlawful markets.

There is a horrifying, area of interest phase of the cryptocurrency neighborhood that's comprised of utmost anarchists. These individuals aren't simply apolitical, they're anti-political (to the purpose that they'll facilitate bets on the lives of politicians). The considering is roughly this: If there are monetary incentives to "off" politicians, then individuals will likely be afraid to run for workplace and thus, the state will collapse.

It would sound excessive, however assassination markets usually are not new phenomena. As early as 2013, some bitcoin fanatics had been contributing towards assassination markets for outstanding public figures together with the US president, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and leaders of US authorities companies. In November 2013, Forbes even profiled one of these market creators. Fortunately, nobody cashed in on those bets, which effectively functioned as bounties.

When Augur launched earlier this month, it was only a matter of time before cryptocurrency-tied assassination markets reappeared. Initially, Augur's market questions were relatively tame (e.g., "Will the price of Ether be above $500 at the end of 2018?" and "Will England win against Croatia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup?" Spoiler Alert: England lost). However, in the last several days, darker questions were posted about the life of the US president and the lives of other public figures.

These assassination markets raise ethical questions for Augur's creators and force us to confront a hideous side of society that seems to lurk in the seemingly pseudonymous depths of the internet. When ETHNews asked Augur co-founder Joey Krug whether there's any way to censor these questions, he simply directed us to Augur's FAQs:

"Users who decide to run the Augur code are the ones who perform trades and create markets on the Augur protocol. All functions of routing orders, matching orders, processing trades, escrow funds, manage the order book and resolve and settle markets are all operated and run on the Ethereum blockchain itself through a set of smart contracts, the Augur core protocol. Miners running Ethereum nodes route, match, store and process orders, trades and markets on the Augur protocol. All funds are escrowed and transferred directly on the Ethereum blockchain itself."

In short, Augur seems to be out of Krug's hands.

The responsibility instead lies with Augur's users (effectively any member of the public who has the technical know-how and financial wherewithal to place a wager). Another section on Augur's FAQ page explains, "Users of the Augur protocol must themselves ensure that the actions they are performing are compliant with the laws in all applicable jurisdictions and must acknowledge that others' use of the Augur protocol may not be compliant. Users of the Augur protocol do so at their own risk."

Note: This seems like an awfully convenient way for Augur's creators to disclaim responsibility, but we're left with the same old question: is the creator of a tool responsible for its usage?

Krug, for his part, doesn't seem worried about the assassination markets. He said, "As far as whether I'm personally concerned, it's a bit like asking the creators of SMTP if they're ok with email being used for ransom notes. Obviously, I would prefer people not use the tool for such things!"

He continued: "That said, it's irrelevant what I think because if it is illegal, market creators shouldn't be creating such markets anyway, just as people should not write ransom notes with email."

Personally, it would be easy to be outraged and appalled by Krug's response. He seems to unintentionally demonstrate the apparent invincibility and irresponsibility of youth. But is he really to blame?

Ultimately, I'm persuaded by Krug's point. If it wasn't Augur, there would be another assassination marketplace. Creators cannot control how their tools are used and, more importantly, a few bad apples shouldn't spoil the bunch. Just because a few miscreants have placed bets on people's lives, the prediction market itself is not evil. Augur remains agnostic. It's up to users to ensure that the tool is used in an ethical manner (especially if it achieves widespread use).

That said, maybe technologists should be sensitive to how their tools could be repurposed. One commenter on the Augur subreddit ominously posted: "Who should my decentralised assassination drone be launched at for 50 BTC? Hope you're all ready for the future, folks."

Matthew is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews with a passion for law and technology. He graduated from Georgetown University where he studied international economics and music. Matthew enjoys biking and listening to tech podcasts. He lives in Los Angeles.

ETHNews is committed to its Editorial Policy

Like what you read? Follow us on Twitter @ETHNews_ to obtain the most recent Augur, prediction market or different Ethereum ecosystem information.

window.fbAsyncInit = function()
FB.init(
appId : '1761887554082917',
xfbml : true,
version : 'v2.7'
);
;

(function(d, s, id)
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s);
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));


Source link