Censorship resistance is one of the features in blockchains that assures a transaction will go through as long as all the set criteria are met. In other words, it is a kind of property of a cryptocurrency network that helps to prevent any entity from altering transactions on it. This ensures that any government or organization can not influence or alter transactions on a blockchain along with the amount of power they dominate.
If any country or government plans to bring any influential person or organization, they first lock their assets and freeze their bank accounts for security. It can compare to a person or organization being paralyzed. Then the government can try to manipulate them into doing what they aim to do.
Since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, the market has seen such influence with western sanctions on Russia. Though, it seems like an appropriate thing to implement weakening an individual or organization. Notably, the chances of misuse are always there.
Overview of censorship resistance in blockchains:
As previously discussed, furthermore, censorship resistance in blockchains is different from how regular banks work. In banking, everything is under tracking, and also there is government activity. Government can order banks to freeze specific assets and accounts. It can even stop transactions from happening.
Censorship resistance can compare to the blockchain’s unchanged record of transactions. Blockchains are similar to distributed ledgers. Every node in the network’s system stores and updates its version of the ledger. It contains details of all the transactions ever made. Hence, any government or authority cannot censor or alter these transaction details.
Why Is Censorship Resistance Important?
The top Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are revolutionary and remarkable as they provide the power back to the people
One of the important things about censorship resistance is that it offers a way for users to own assets without the stamp or authorization of the authority of governments. It doesn’t take much time for well governments to change into sour or act as dictators. But if people use blockchains for transactions, there is a limitation of the government’s control.
The next importance of censorship resistance is securing the idea of privacy. As the blockchain ledgers are public, there is a good possibility of complete privacy. For instance, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, is known to everyone, and even how much bitcoin he owns is also known. But no one knows what is his actual identity.
Lastly, censorship resistance is important because that prevents blockchains from being brought down. No government or authority or hackers can bring down a blockchain. Unless they take control of 51 percent of the total dominance rate on the network.
The Threats To Censorship Resistance :
There are two threats. These threats can lead the censorship resistance of blockchains to take a fall.
First is the internet availability. The internet service providers and governments control that. Governments have the right to block or cease the internet or certain websites that matter for blockchain transactions.
These kinds of threats are witnessed in some parts of Ukraine. At that time Russian forces blocked the internet in certain areas. A remarkable solution was Elon Musk’s Starlink. It succeeded in providing the internet from beyond the clouds.
The next threat is the straight manipulation of blockchains. That occurs through an entity taking over a majority of the hash rate. Then the misleading activity takes place in the blockchain. Though, this threat is very costly and theoretical in the current situation. But the possibilities are there. Its cost is approximately more than 100 billion dollars. To take over the bitcoin blockchain, this amount has to be spent. Though it is true, this massive amount is the obstacle to being spent.
