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Child Abuse Imagery Found Within Bitcoin's Blockchain (theguardian.com)
German researchers have discovered unknown persons are using bitcoin's blockchain to store and link to child abuse imagery, potentially putting the cryptocurrency in jeopardy. From a report: The blockchain is the open-source, distributed ledger that records every bitcoin transaction, but can also store small bits of non-financial data. This data is typically notes about the trade of bitcoin, recording what it was for or other metadata. But it can also be used to store links and files. Researchers from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany found that around 1,600 files were currently stored in bitcoin's blockchain. Of the files least eight were of sexual content, including one thought to be an image of child abuse and two that contain 274 links to child abuse content, 142 of which link to dark web services. "Our analysis shows that certain content, eg, illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal," the researchers wrote. "Although court rulings do not yet exist, legislative texts from countries such as Germany, the UK, or the USA suggest that illegal content such as [child abuse imagery] can make the blockchain illegal to possess for all users. This especially endangers the multi-billion dollar markets powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin."
If you don't want to be double-spent on, you have to possess the entire blockchain. Otherwise you might find your precious coins not usable.
There still needs to be a method for correcting or removing data.
Just. No.
The whole system is based on the fact that you can't do that.
The federal law on the matter is 18 U.S. Code  2252A. It says it's illegal to KNOWINGLY send and receive child porn. Anyone who doesn't know it's there has not committed a crime. Even having read the summary, I know that the chain contains a) porn and b) links to child porn. I don't know/remember if it contains child porn, so it's not illegal for me to send or receive it.
Also, as confirmed in ELONIS, mens rea (guilty mind) is still required. To be criminally responsible for any action, one would have to intend to do something bad. That's true by default unless the statute for a particular crime specifically lays out a different treatment of mens rea for the elements of that particular crime. Since 2252 doesn't specify otherwise, the standard mens rea rule applies and one is not guilty unless they were they had guilty intent, unless they were trying to do a bad thing.