Szabo warns that cryptoassets do not work without trust, but with minimized trust.
For the specialist, “Bitcoin is not a magical anarcho-capitalist Swiss army knife.”
Nick Szabo, pioneer of the cypherpunk movement and one of the most influential voices in the design of Bitcoin (BTC), warned that there is a risk in assuming that the digital asset and cryptocurrencies can resist all types of state pressure.
His comments, published in X, focus on a sensitive angle: technology is robust, but not invincible, and The ecosystem still faces legal areas where, in their opinion, it is unprotected.
Szabo began his analysis by referring to the philosophy that, in his view, functions as the core of digital currencies: anarcho-capitalism.
«Anarcho-capitalism is a wonderfully abstract ideal that can inspire innovation. “It inspired me to contribute to the invention of cryptocurrencies,” remembered. However, he warned that this philosophical aspiration does not coincide with the technical and legal reality that decentralized systems currently face.
For the cryptographer, one of the most widespread misunderstandings is believing that cryptoassets work without the need for trust. He makes it clear: “Real-world cryptocurrencies do not work without trust, but with minimized trust.”
Along these lines, Szabo argues that Bitcoin reduces the need to depend on third parties as much as possible, but does not completely eliminate vulnerabilities. He maintains that each network, including the one proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto, has “a vulnerable legal flank,” that is, ways in which governments or private entities can use the law to try to disrupt its operation.
That is, on the one hand, the specialist recognizes that Bitcoin has demonstrated remarkable resilience against the pressures of traditional financial laws. This, he clarifies, is due to two factors: its technical design and the presence of a specialized legal ecosystem that has learned to defend it.
“The types of attacks that come from financial law have proven to be largely manageable,” he noted.
When the content on-chain becomes a legal vector of attack
Despite his praise, the scientist warns that The strength of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is not replicated in all areas of law. According to Szabo, there is a much more delicate front: regulation linked to arbitrary data that can be recorded in the blockchain – whether content, metadata or any type of information that opens the door to legal problems such as pornography.
That kind of exposure, he says, is enormous and difficult to anticipate. «The flank of legal attack for arbitrary data is much larger and much less predictable. “The crypto industry does not have the legal experience to deal with that,” he warned.
In other words, Szabo’s point is that if someone uploads problematic information to Bitcoin, Governments could try to legally attack node operatorsminers or infrastructure providers, because they would be storing or transmitting sensitive content. And there, he explains, the industry has no preparation or defenses, because the legal experts in the ecosystem are specialized in financial laws.
Thus, the specialist was forceful regarding those who believe that Bitcoin is capable of avoiding any government attack, regardless of the area of law from which it comes: “To think that Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is a magical anarcho-capitalist Swiss army knife that can resist any type of government attack is crazy.”
The truth is that this is not the first time that Szabo addresses the topic in question. As reported by CriptoNoticias, in a publication on October 22, the academic explained that, by not being able to selectively delete information from cryptocurrency networks, they become much more difficult to operate than data services where it is possible to delete unacceptable content.