Escaping the “post-truth” era is going to
require a seismic shift in culture in which people value facts more than
hyperbole and reality more than fantasy. Fortunately, a few players in the
blockchain community are shaping a different value structure for digital media
that supports the creation and circulation of accurate, legitimate and true
content.
Salvation Through Blockchains
Lunyr is a blockchain-backed, digital encyclopedia that rewards
contributors for their work. One of the biggest challenges faced by the internet
knowledge database Wikipedia is that it relies
on volunteers to keep the platform running. Wikipedia’s
contributor structure allows any editor to alter articles as they see fit. This
hierarchy-free format renders Wikipedia vulnerable to bad actors who might be
motivated to hide certain truths or propagate promotional stories in their own
interests. In contrast, articles submitted to Lunyr must be peer-reviewed
before they can be published. The community pays contributors who submit
high-quality articles with Lunyr’s in-system tokens.
The Brave browser addresses a different facet of the current digital
media cycle: ad dollars. Much of the online services enjoyed for free,
including search, email, chat and video, would not be possible without money
from advertisers. Consumers relinquish their power in the form of data in order
to use these services supplied by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. The more
information these digital giants know about consumers, the better they are at
predicting consumer desires and inclinations — incredibly valuable information
for brands. The issue with ad dollars powering the digital economy is that,
like politicians indebted to lobbyists, tech corporations are beholden to
advertisers. The blockchain-based Brave browser aims to return the power of the
purse into the hands of people by endowing users with the ability to choose
which ads to permit and to make direct donations to publishers as compensation
for producing quality content.
The growth of the internet brought about new
platforms for creators, but the abundance of free content also made it difficult
for creators to support themselves. This is, in large part, due to the lack of tracking
mechanisms to identify creators when content has been shared across multiple
websites and platforms. Web users must trust that the content they consume is
legitimate.
Po.et is building the foundation for a trustless content licensing
network wherein content is registered by creators on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Once validated by the network, a permanent record is noted on the ledger as a
time stamp. If Po.et succeeds in achieving mass adoption, its database of time-stamped
content could resolve many questions licensers face about the origins of digital
works.
The present digital media environment
inadvertently incentivizes the creation, consumption and dissemination of
inaccurate and illegitimate content on a mass scale. Lunyr, Brave and Po.et
turn a media cycle based on shock value on its head by building systems that
reward quality content and redistribute power from advertisers to
consumers and publishers. These and other developing projects suggest that
blockchain technology could help digital media players break out of the
“post-truth” era and into reality.
