Unchain my Past

One of the features of a blockchain is its immutability. This just means that what is recorded can't be changed. Hive uses this to protect text content, which means that what is said here can't be censored - well, it is incredibly hard to censor. However, many people get blockchain immutability and interface visibility confused, so if their content is "hidden" by an interface, they see it as censorship, even though it still resides safe and sound on the blockchain and is fully visible, if someone choose show it.

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Most popular interfaces choose not to show hidden posts, as the owners of the interface they tend to have the perspective that if it is hidden, then it is for a reason. Some interfaces even filter out the view of downvotes on their interface from some users who are pest downvoters. However, this doesn't change what happens at the blockchain level, the downvotes still count to removing rewards.

However, it is also possible that someone decide to create an interface that could show the blockchain content in different ways. For instance, they could use the reputation system that is designed to hide a post, to show that content instead. They could create an interface view that shows the content from the lowest rated users only, for example, all those in negative ratings that most interfaces would hide. This is possible because at the blockchain level, once a transaction is committed, it is there forever.

And this gives some interesting capabilities that some people might not have thought about, while they scream about censorship because an interface has chosen to hide their content. Because, they aren't actually censored, they just aren't visible. And, it could be argued that making something invisible is a form of censorship, but this isn't done at the blockchain level. It isn't Hive doing the censoring, it is the operator of the interface. And as operator or owner, it is their right to do what they want with what they own - it is their freedom speech.

Would anyone be interested to have an interface only of the lowest-rated accounts on the blockchain?

I suspect other than out of morbid fascination, people wouldn't spend much time their enjoying what they see. But, there it still is, on the blockchain, conveniently out of the sight of most users. Which brings up another little capability that could be possible, but isn't really used.

The way the blockchain is immutable but still editable (it wasn't originally until was it HF 19? - my memory is bad), is that an edit transaction "quotes" the original transaction that is being edited. Essentially, it is a pointer to the original, no matter how many times it is edited. Nothing gets replaced, the changes are just stored on a new transaction. This is pretty cool and for those who understand or work with Quality Management Systems (QMS) or in industries that have to be able to prove their process like pharmaceutical and most manufacturing, this technique makes it far simpler to process and report workflow information to meet requirements.

For the average user here, what is interesting perhaps with this is that no matter what is edited, the entire chain of information is recallable, meaning that if someone chooses to look past the edit, the can find everything below the top level that is seen through an interface. This can be a bane or a curse, depending on the user.

For instance, some users who for whatever reason choose to leave Hive, get really upset and throw a tantrum before stepping away. Many come back. But, what some do is go through all of their top level posts and comments, editing each to something like "." or "a" to remove their valuable content from the community to teach us all a lesson - "It is my ball, and I am going home". Sounds like a lot of work to me, especially since I have about 80,000 posts - but it could be automated.

However, automated or manual, doing this doesn't actually remove it from the blockchain, just from the view of the interfaces. While each account is owned, once committed to the blockchain, it should be remembered that it is a public blockchain. That means that every transaction is recallable. An interface shows the latest version of content because that is the logical way to do it 99.99% of the time, because the latest version is assumed to be the most relevant for the users. However, nothing actually stops an interface pointing to for example, the original version of a post, or the version that has the most text in it, or something or other. While you own your content that you put here, you don't own the visibility of that content, the interfaces do.

In my previous work, I was working with customers that required a high degree of traceability of their workflows, with every edit and version of every document needing to be retrievable. Essentially, the company I worked for used a system similar to a blockchain (though it wasn't fully immutable, because a select few admins could edit). However, what this meant for the client company is that they were able to collect and process millions of documents for an audit to prove each step and change throughout a project over time. This would be needed for their customers, or governments, or for certification and the like. This also meant that an individual couldn't "hide" their transactions very easily, because everything was recorded, which limits internal risks and liabilities. For instance, an employee couldn't create a new document to cover their past mistake, because the timestamp wouldn't fit the timeline. It also meant that an employee is covered from having someone throw them under the bus, because they will have proof of all their transactions.

Pros and Cons.

Why I mention the ownership of content, but not the ownership of visibility of that content once pushed to the chain, is that editing a past post doesn't wipe all the past information away. If an interface chose to make visible the content of the people who add "." to all of their past content, they could do it with a simple filter written into the code. Because of this, it is also why people should think about what they put on the blockchain and why I say, "Don't blockchain drunk" - a personal rule I occasionally break.

I think we should always think about what we say and how we behave. I also think that we should also consider this especially when we are feeling bad, angry, or frustrated, because we often tend to say and do what we might regret later, when we are in a negative state of mind. This is true on the blockchain, because no matter whether we regret it later or not, or edit our latest version history, the entire history is still there and can be visualised, if any of the interfaces chose to, or someone did some data diving.

I wonder what the reaction would be from people who have "hidden" their content if an interface chose to show it again. It is a public blockchain and absolutely possible, so will people then get upset at being uncensored? Upset at having their past words unchained?

Immutable means the past is preserved.
Even if you have changed your mind since.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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