Twelve years after the invention of bitcoin (BTC), the technology behind the world’s first cryptocurrency evolved from just a buzzword into something that grants utility for many sectors.
Cryptocurrencies like BTC are powered by “blockchain,” a method to digitally stamp documents first described by researchers Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta on the Journal of Cryptology. This was in 1991 or 18 years before BTC was actually invented.
Almost all new cryptocurrencies that pop up these days offer new utility, also thanks to blockchain technology. Here, I will argue for the necessity to consider the use of this technology inside newsrooms.
Three problems
Consider these problems: In February 2019, alternative journalism websites kadao.org, bulatlat.com, and pinoyweekly.org were hit with DDoS attacks that were blamed on the Duterte Administration. In the same month, Philstar.com removed a 2002 article that was used to file libel cases against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and researcher Rey Santos Jr., who cited the article in 2012.
There is also the problem with advertising revenue for newspapers. Meta, Google, and other platforms get a huge chunk from advertising revenues, denying newsrooms a significant amount of their lifeblood. In a 2018 report, for example, tech giant Google earned $4.7 billion from news content online. That amount was almost equal to the revenue earned by all American news organizations combined that year, according to a study by the non-profit News Media Alliance.
And then of course there’s media shutdown. Administrations like the former president Duterte’s have repeatedly threatened silencing journalists around the world. ABS-CBN, it just so happened, was the largest television network in the Philippines, and with Duterte proving that he can shut down any network large or small, he has stricken fear amongst newsrooms.
Blockchain solution
With blockchain however, these problems can be solved. Hacking a website or shutting down any media outlet will be impossible with this technology. Since blockchain is immutable, no material that has already been published (or to use a blockchain term, “minted”) can be taken down.
For anyone not familiar with blockchain technology yet, this immutable characteristic of blockchain may seem confusing because “centralization” is so ingrained in our consciousness, but it is really quite simple. Imagine that a group of friends—Alice, Bob, Charlie, and Eve—are playing Scrabble. They all designate Bob as the keeper of scores. Alice, Charlie, and Eve now have to trust that Bob is computing the scores properly. This is your centralized system.
But in a decentralized system, something blockchain offers, everything would be different. If all four of them keep a record of the scores with their own computations, any mistake made by one of them can be easily corrected. If Bob tries to cheat with his calculations, Alice’s, Charlie’s, and Eve’s records will show the inaccuracies in calculations. No matter how he tries, Bob cannot replace or falsify data once everyone has confirmed the integrity of the data.
Blockchain, therefore, makes reports from journalists tamper-proof against hostile governments. Furthermore, even if newsrooms decide that in the future that they need to take down a news report, as in the case of the 2002 Philstar.com article, the data will always be on the blockchain.
So what about the problem with revenue? To understand my proposition, we must first look into other cryptocurrencies that offer utility more than what BTC is offering.
Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a cryptocurrency that wants to fix digital advertising. Intermediaries like Google and Facebook have overrun the marketplace for online advertising. Aside from “malvertisements,” online users also have to deal with privacy violations from big data.
So the Brave Browser wants to offer a solution for this by using the cryptocurrency BAT by using a “decentralized, transparent digital ad exchange based on blockchain,” according to their whitepaper. Brave is an open-source web browser launched by JavaScript creator Brendan Eich.
To solve problems regarding privacy violations, Brave browser blocks advertisements that may spy on you, or make your browsing slower, or both. Unlike other browsers, the browsing data of the user does not leave his or her device, so not centralized entity can use the data to target the user. However, and here is the good thing about it, the user can monetize these data. Brave browser users get advertisements on their device that were paid for by advertisers. The users get paid directly in BAT by the advertisers for their attention. No information was sent to the advertisers nor to Brave Software, Inc. before the personalized ads were sent to the users. Users get 70 percent from this while the other 30 percent goes to the development of the browser.
Another important feature of this browser is its rewarding function. Brave users can give BAT to content creators, Twitter friends, and other Reddit users, for example. Vice News, The Guardian, and The Washington Post are just some of the media outlets that are accepting BAT.
Using a blockchain the same way Brave uses it effectively removes the need for intermediaries that are robbing money from media companies that they deserve. This means that it is now possible to reward both news consumers and producers if something like this gets implemented.
But of course there are downsides to this proposition. There is a legitimate concern for adverse effects of digital currencies like BTC and BAT to the environment. This is because BTC is a “proof of work” blockchain network. “Miners” of BTC get rewarded for verifying transactions. In order for them to profit from this, miners use powerful and fast computers that are open 24/7. In other words, they need a lot of electricity. This is just like every internet transaction. Since the data all internet users upload to and download from the internet are stored somewhere, and moving those data around require a lot of electricity, everything done online is harmful to the environment.
When it comes to BTC, all the mining activities done worldwide are worse than the carbon emissions of the aviation industry as a whole. Although many miners have moved to countries where electricity is sustainable—meaning, they only use the excess electricity, or where they use renewable energy and electricity—the cryptocurrency space is still getting the bad reputation.
This is why for on-chain journalism to prosper, it has to be on what is called “proof of stake” blockchain networks. These are networks that do not need huge computing powers to reward its miners. Instead, nodes that can run on single-board computers and multiple other users can just delegate their cryptocurrencies in what is called a stake pool operator to earn money.
Another possible problem with using blockchain is that there has to be internet for anyone to be able to use it. This does not ensure mass inclusion. However, there is a solution coming. A proof of stake blockchain called Cardano has just recently made a deal with the Ethiopian government to deploy blockchain in their educational system. According to the scientific online publication Our World in Data, in 2016, only 15.37 percent of the entire population in Ethiopia were connected to the internet. In the Philippines, 55.5 percent of the population were connected to the internet. Despite this, the Input Output Global (IOG), the company that develops Cardano, has made their first steps in to realize the ambitious project starting with a partnership with a mobile telecommunication network that aims to connect 78 percent of sub-Saharan Africa residents to the internet. Since its founding in 2017, Cardano has been aiming to bank the unbanked populations especially especially in warring states where blockchain can also be used to preserve data of refugees including land deeds, identification papers, and other certificates.
If all of these propositions would be put in place, advertising would then be fully decentralized while both the users and content creators benefit, news consumers’ privacy will be protected, mainstream and alternative media will be protected from hackers, and reading the news would be a lot safer to the environment compared to watching an episode of your favorite show on Netflix.
TRANSPARENCY NOTE: Two cryptocurrencies mentioned here are coins I do not hold. Bitcoin and Basic Attention Token are not in my portfolio. I do, however, hold Cardano.
