Why Someone Hid a Giant Dong on the Ethereum Blockchain

Permanent. Immutable. NSFW.

Permanent Phallus

Advocates of blockchain technology will tell you that decentralized networks are built with trust in mind — because every user holds a copy of the transaction record, no one has enough power to exploit others.

Since each transaction on a blockchain becomes a permanent public record, some activists have used the notes section of transactions to circumvent government censorship in China. And other people, Vice reports, used them to upload a monstrous ASCII penis to the Ethereum blockchain. Here it is, in all its glory:

Everything Is Art

The ASCII penis, dubbed "Permanent Phallus," took a surprising deal of collaboration.

Swedish artists Ida Jonsson and Simon Saarinen created the penis along with developer Lavi Malik, according to Vice. Jonsson said that the idea was to make their work, which also includes "Permanent Meme" and "Permanent Tag," as permanent as possible.

"The idea was to create 'doodles' similar to those millions of kids (and adults) are drawings on toilets with sharpies, and spraying on walls with paint but this time forever on the blockchain," Jonsson told Vice. "Sort of creating internet graffiti that is impossible to remove"

Cockchain

Penises aside, the permanence of blockchain records have caused problems in the past, with people sharing child pornography or gambling on what could be seen as an assassination marketplace.

There are many things on the internet worse than an ASCII penis, but the appearance of NSFW art perfectly illustrates the anything-goes environment that blockchain leaders wanted to create.

READ MORE: There's a Huge ASCII Penis Hidden on the Ethereum Blockchain [Vice]

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