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With conventional publishing models, the business structures underwriting them, and trust in journalism all under siege, it is not surprising that people are looking to new technologies for solutions.
Enter blockchain, often hyped as the answer to all publishing's woes.
Blockchain is claimed to be capable of supporting a new form of self-government and self-supporting publishing, free of the domination of technology behemoths – and large publishers. Blockchain advocates contend that it can shift the balance of power on the internet toward writers, artists and consumers.
They say blockchain-based publishing can change the nature of the user's trade-off. Nowadays he or she gives Facebook, for instance, private data in return for information, services and access to other users, and exactly how that happens is a mystery. The blockchain trade-off is constructive contribution and/or micropayments in return for the same benefits, and the terms are transparent.
Not only that, but the accountability built into blockchain is claimed to render bot-generated "fake news" and intellectual-property theft relics from the past, and to clear up the murky realms of programmatic and online classified advertising.
Part of the argument for blockchain is that it is based on a distributed ledger that records every single change (a bit like a document history) and makes sure that record is itself all but impossible to destroy. Theoretically that provides accountability without trusting it to a government agency, a tech company, or a large publisher.
As a so-called "trustless" system, blockchain is intended to inspire users' confidence by means of nearly-unhackable encryption instead of institutional or personal reputation. Blockchains are stored on users' computers, eliminating the need for a central point of storage and facilitating direct user-to-user interaction, without a clearinghouse. Any kind of information – including a news article, photo, or video – can be permanently stored or referenced on a blockchain.
In the newsroom
These are some of the ways blockchain is said to be capable of benefiting news publishers:
Advertising
The promise of accountability makes blockchain a highly attractive prospect for advertising as well:
Case studies in the report are Civil, Sludge, Publiq, Katalysis, and inBlocks/Sud Ouest.
The report also includes some advice from a blockchain publishing expert on how to get started.
WAN-IFRA
2018-12-21 11:19
Links:
[1] http://14yiq.trade.blog.wan-ifra.org/reportdnl?fid=94358&nid=198796&fty=1
[2] https://www.wan-ifra.org/node/155870?nid=198796
[3] http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/31125
[4] http://14yiq.trade.blog.wan-ifra.org/category/reports/electronic-media