I just thought up a crazy idea, and I want to post it here to get opinions on feasibility:
Crypto Court
an idea
by Keith Vidal
Crypto Court: a way to "punish" "crime".
What is it? How does it work?
Crypto court is an idea that any person or group can pick up and implement on their own. It's a way of telling who has committed a "crime" with cryptocurrencies in some way. Stealing, scamming, anything that would be illegal in the typical financial world. Or really, what YOU want to be illegal in the new crypto financial world.
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Anyone can start a Crypto Court
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Some courts may issue only rulings, some only sentences, some both.
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All rulings must be backed up with blockchain-based evidence, with proof of legitimacy
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Courts can rule on any cases/claims they want to, and can turn down any they want to
- Users of cryptocurrencies can bring their cases/claims to any courts they want to. They would have to pay a fee similar to a mining fee. But there could also be free courts, just as there are free transactions.
I'm not a programmer, so I don't know how feasible this is technically. I'm writing this to show to people who do know. Even if all investigations would have to be done manually initially, it may be possible to do this completely automated. There could be a community surrounding this concept, with serious courts, joke courts, dogecourts, darkcourts, opencourts, bitcourts, etc... and even automated courts that sweep the web like bots.
What would courts do?
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Issue rulings based on blockchain evidence. This should go much smoother than regular court!
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Rulings could include blacklisting some of that user's currency. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A GLOBAL BLACKLIST, ONLY THE "OPINION" OF THIS PARTICULAR COURT, AND USERS ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO FOLLOW ANY GIVEN BLACKLIST GLOBALLY.
- The acts in question are not to be universally considered "crimes". Only by this particular court.
** Users would only follow that blacklist when using that court. Courts could make their own browser plugins & phone apps that would alert you when you meet someone who has a ruling against them by that particular court. This would serve ONLY as a guide.
If an idea like this takes off, it could spawn a community of cryptocourts, and users would be able to join or create a court any time they want to. they can join as many courts as they want to. courts can make any rules they want regarding membership, admittance, and (there's probably some fancy legal word for kicking a judge out of his own court, so insert that word here).
And if the community grows in size and popularity, the cryptocourt system could provide an OPTIONAL means of determining who's more likely to rip you off in the future. This could also be used for many other uses.. some with purely entertainment value. even some courts that just keep other courts in check!
Courts could issue altcoins or higher-level assets of some kind to function as their IPO token. Their way of gagueing user confidence in their rulings, and the health & prosperity of the court as a whole.
So, that's my idea in a nutshell. I thought I'd throw it out there to get some more knowledgible opinions.
Problem: anonymity.
Again I dont' know the technical side of this so I have no idea how anonymity would play in, except that people would use it to try to avoid leaving any blockchain evidence. There would be lots of blockchain auditing, unmixing, decrypting, and if lots of people do this on a regular basis, adding to searchable blockchain-based databases of all rulings made by a given court.. These could be accessed via the cloud on your phone at any time. This would give the bitcoin community a clearer look into what's going on under the hood. It's a good thing for the community to be informed of what's going on, and this could help users to be more aware. It would also stress-test all anonymity techniques.
Problem: corruption, etc
IANAL.. I am not a lawyer, I'm only proposing this idea as a vague concept. I don't have any sort of legal framework set up for this, but it seems to me that it should be feasible, and even easy for many cases. As for corruption, the concept would rely on the open-source nature of the crypto community. Courts can watch over each other just like they watch over users and transactions, and they can issue rulings on each other, and they can bring their own cases/claims against other courts to 3rd party courts. This process can be continued to the Nth degree, so long as there is demand in the community for checks & balances.
