Is cryptocurrency responsible for the “Nth Room” incident?

Author | Hashipai - Adeline

Article word count: about 2200 words

Reading time: about 4 minutes

n rooms, 104,000 subscribers, 260,000 viewers...

What does this number mean? In 2019, there were approximately 26 million Korean men, which means that one in every 100 Korean men has entered the Telegram chat room known as "Room N".

The operators of Room N obtained women's private information through social platforms such as Twitter, and used it to threaten and force them to become "slaves". They were sexually persecuted and exploited in ways that ordinary people could hardly imagine, and they filmed various live videos and uploaded them to these chat rooms. The victims included a large number of minors, even infants.

Information source: Twitter screenshot

As of now, according to the clues the South Korean police have, there are 74 known female victims in Room N, 16 of whom are minors. In addition, according to South Korean media estimates, there may be tens of thousands of female victims who have not been found.

Each member who enters the room to watch these videos is charged a membership fee ranging from 250,000 to 1.5 million won (8,400 yuan), and each transaction is completed in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The amount of the membership fee determines the scale of the photos or videos that can be seen (entering different levels of rooms).

These people hiding under Telegram accounts, hiding in the dark, wantonly watching videos of suspected rape, sexual crimes, and sexual abuse of underage girls, enjoying this online sexual abuse carnival.

After the incident was exposed, it shocked the world. More than 4 million South Koreans petitioned for severe punishment of the murderer, and more than 1.3 million petitioned to disclose the true identities of the 260,000 people. At present, the matter is still fermenting.

Information source: Screenshot of Korean anchor Ashley Kang’s Twitter

Encryption technology is once again stigmatized

While the public is paying attention to the incident itself, Telegram and Bitcoin, which serve as the platform and payment tool for Room N, have once again been pushed to the forefront.

The MTProto encryption used by Telegram is very powerful. At the same time, the chat information between contacts can only be accessed on the device that initiates the secret chat and the device that receives the secret chat. Even if you have the server permissions, you cannot decrypt it. And you can set the self-destruct time of the message to achieve "burn after reading".

Information source: Screenshot of Telegram’s official Twitter account

Here, the content is completely encrypted and cannot be supervised, and personal privacy is fully protected. Therefore, it has become a so-called hotbed of freedom, and it has inevitably led to the proliferation of illegal information.

Due to the concept of "user privacy is inviolable" that Telegram founder Pavel Durov has always insisted on, terrorists once chose to use Telegram to communicate to avoid monitoring from government agencies, which also made Telegram a loophole in the Russian government's censorship. As early as 2017, the Russian government hoped to require communication service providers to provide a way to decrypt user messages through the anti-terrorism regulations passed in 2016, hoping that Telegram would hand over the key to user chat content, but was rejected by Telegram.

Image source: Telegram founder Pavel Durov's response to the Russian government

In this Nth Room incident, the South Korean police also sent requests to Telegram to delete illegal videos and to obtain the personal information of the uploaders of the illegal videos. However, apart from deleting the illegal videos, Telegram did not respond to the latter.

The solid protection umbrella and extremely low crime risk are the reasons why the operators of Room N are so unscrupulous.

As for the fact that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become a secret channel for criminal groups to make profits. According to the investigation results of foreign media, the main culprit of this case, "Dr. Cho" Cho Ju-bin, used a "cryptocurrency mixer" to hide his identity and avoid searches. He held 513 cryptocurrency wallets and had 3 personal cryptocurrency wallet address accounts disclosed in the "Doctor's Room". The amount in one of the accounts was as high as 3.2 billion won (about 18.39 million yuan).

But Cho Joo-bin, who was one step behind, may not have expected that although cryptocurrencies are anonymous and the transaction process is encrypted, encrypted transactions are also traceable. On March 24, Bithumb and other domestic cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea said they would cooperate with the police to investigate the list of members related to the Telegram "Doctor Chat Group". As the investigation progressed, the paid members involved even included popular artists, sports stars, and CEOs of famous startups.

This is not the first time that cryptocurrency has been used for evil.

In November 2011, a website called "Silk Road" was established, and an online trading platform hidden in the darkness was opened. The platform was filled with contraband from various countries. Illegal transactions such as arms, drugs, organs, child pornography, assassination services, etc. were clearly marked with prices, and only Bitcoin transactions were supported.

After the dark web was exposed, the topic of Bitcoin was once tied to it. Although the development of blockchain applications has gradually untied it from the dark web, the stigmatization has not stopped. This time, the Nth Room incident has once again brought up the topic of Bitcoin's evil.

“Technology itself is not shameful”

The paradox is that Satoshi Nakamoto's original intention in establishing Bitcoin was to build an anonymous, decentralized, and free system to fight against the real power. However, it is now used in various illegal transactions, which is really sad.

It knocked on the door of freedom on the Internet, and at the same time, it also gave the dark side of human nature a place to stay. This makes people start to think that although freedom is innocent, Bitcoin itself is innocent, and the various business models derived from it are innocent, but behind the business model, opportunities and losses often coexist, and wealth and sin collide wildly. Looking at the traditional Internet, there was "Qvod" as an example, the pornographic content caused CEO Wang Xin to be imprisoned; later, Baidu's illegal advertising, "Wei Zexi" and others became victims of search engine evil.

Wang Xin also argued at the trial that "technology itself is not shameful." Indeed, technologies such as Bitcoin are like a knife. You can use it to cut vegetables, or you can use it to kill people.

Although Bitcoin is moving towards the mainstream, in the dark web that we cannot reach, Bitcoin is still the number one "universal currency", still with one foot towards light and one foot in darkness. So, as we have always expected, as a cryptocurrency on the edge of finance, supervision is urgent. Freedom also has boundaries, that is, not infringing on the boundaries of others. And how to load compliance and supervision on the "decentralized" attribute is what needs to be done next.

At the same time, it should be noted that legal supervision and moral condemnation are aimed at those who use technology for evil, rather than stigmatizing encryption technology.

Talk about human nature

Back to the Nth Room incident itself, we are not talking about whether cryptocurrency is doing evil, but rather talking about human nature.

In fact, although Room N has been banned, the video is still being sold and circulated through various channels. Within a few days, a large number of viewers have flocked to another encrypted chat software called Discord.

Image source: Discord activity interface

Coincidentally, on March 27, according to media reports, there are also similar places like "Room N" in China. Places like "Zhao Liying Bar" are also unbearable to look at.

The infringement is still happening in the corners we cannot see.

It is true that food and sex are human nature, but this is based on the norms of morality and good customs. Restraint is what makes people human.