The shocking news of the Cyprus serial killer made the news (BBC article by journalist Rosie Blunt) across the globe in April 2019. The most vulnerable members of society are quite often the target for serial killers and we hope to use blockchain technology to help their plight. At some point during our lifetime we all fall into the category of vulnerable individuals so BLOC8 is designed to be used by everyone.
Cyprus Serial Killer
For background to the Cyprus serial killer case and suspect Nikos Metaxas check out the posts on the Cyprus Mail site. One alarming issue was the police stating that until the body of a victim is found that they are not able to access the phone and social media accounts of a missing person. Their argument was that without a body there was no proof that a “serious” crime had been committed i.e. the missing person may have simply chosen to leave their family, friends, and workplace.

The Justice Department contradicted the police and said they would have examined each case if the police had requested personal data for the missing people. Within weeks of the arrest of the serial killer the Justice Minister, Ionas Nicolaou resigned and Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou was dismissed. The issue of personal data will be addressed when users sign up to the BLOC8 system.
We are not going to explain all the technical details of blockchain here but basically, it’s a distributed network where data can’t be changed (immutable) once it has been accepted by the network. This contrasts with social media platforms like Facebook where posts can be removed by employees of the platform. Blockchain networks are the only computer networks which run 24/7. The bitcoin network now boasts of 100% uptime for more than 10 years!
One aspect of blockchain technology we must cover is that of Smart Contracts and in particular the type offered by the ICON blockchain known as SCORE (Smart Contract on Reliable Environment). Smart Contracts are akin to traditional legal contracts for things like property title deeds, hire purchase agreements and employment contracts but they are in digital format as software code rather than in text format. To find out how blockchain and SCORE can be used in missing person cases please check out the BLOC8 system.
Registered users are sent details of how to use the BLOC8 SCORE. We recommend using a smartphone with Android 5.0 or higher and alternatively Chrome desktop. If you don’t have access to either of these you can use the BLOC8 browser SCORE. Read Q11 on the Q&A regarding private keys if you are planning to use the general browser SCORE.
Please be sure to bookmark this site and check back regularly for updates. The Cyprus serial killer was allowed to get away with his crimes for far too long and BLOC8 hopes to prevent similar occurrences around the world.