Blockchain allows users to preserve unique art, games, and photographs. One of the famous examples is the art collection by Beeple, who sold a piece named ‘Everydays: the First 5,000 Days’ (2021) for a record $69.3 million. Islamic extremism is now receiving a boost from the blockchain, which allows extremists to create and preserve extremist artefacts indefinitely, potentially inspiring future pseudo-religious extremist generations. These artefacts can be passed on, and increase in sentimentality with time. What if Islamic extremists seize the technological opening of blockchain to create artefacts that inspire further generations of extremism?
This Insight examines the pseudo-religious sentimentalism of Islamic extremism, expressed through their artefacts on the blockchain, and questions how such artefacts would increase extremist appeal and affect individual behaviour, and how to mitigate this unique threat. This Insight focuses particularly on the Islamic extremist content on blockchain made available by OpenSea, the world’s largest online non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.
The decentralised web, or Web 3.0, is based on the concept of ending centralised control and releasing the ownership of the web from tech companies to individuals through shared ownership.
Read more at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology
