Re: Augur’s Joey Krug Comments On Assassination Markets

Steven Schear schear.steve at gmail.com
Fri Aug 3 13:43:18 PDT 2018


If AP markets persist, become effective and go "mainstream" they should be
considered a RLT (Radical Leveling Technology).

On Fri, Aug 3, 2018, 11:09 AM Steven Schear <schear.steve at gmail.com> wrote:

> "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."
>
> Should the functioning existence of these markets raise different ethical
> questions from when governments engage in similar targeting of foreign
> civilians (or even their own citizens) without benefit of open and fair
> trials?
>
> On Fri, Aug 3, 2018, 11:02 AM jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> https://www.ethnews.com/augurs-joey-krug-comments-on-assassination-markets
>>
>>
>> By
>> MATTHEW DE SILVA
>> WRITER
>> ETHNEWS.COM
>>
>> Shortly after Augur’s launch, some users created cryptocurrency-settled
>> assassination markets. Since the Augur protocol exists on the Ethereum
>> blockchain, the marketplace exists across many computers. Because of
>> Augur’s decentralization, law enforcement may struggle to shut down these
>> morbid and highly illegal markets.
>>
>> There's a frightening, niche segment of the cryptocurrency community that
>> is comprised of extreme anarchists. These people aren't just apolitical,
>> they're anti-political (to the point that they will facilitate bets on the
>> lives of politicians). The thinking is roughly this: If there are financial
>> incentives to "off" politicians, then people will be afraid to run for
>> office and thus, the state will collapse.
>>
>> It might sound extreme, but assassination markets are not new phenomena.
>> As early as 2013, some bitcoin enthusiasts were contributing toward
>> assassination markets for prominent public figures including the US
>> president, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and leaders of US
>> government agencies. 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 DE SILVA
>> 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
>>
>>
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