Blockchain, like the internet, democracy, or money, is many overlapping things. The idea of blockchain has fired up a vibrant debate about how we might change things all over again. Despite being around for years and applied in other sectors, the technology is not widely used in media production. There are start-ups building solutions with some minor blockchain applications, such as saving article metadata and editing history to an open immutable repository. For the beginner, the technology might appear difficult to understand but I would encourage anyone interested to spend some time looking it up and what is happening more generally around ‘Web3.0’. This knowledge will help journalists to create verified and trusted content by opening up editing histories and making co-creation with the public a natural and necessary part of journalistic work.
What is blockchain?
To most of the public, blockchain is associated with cryptocurrencies. The reason for the strong connection between digital money and blockchain is that computer-based currencies are where the design principle of blockchain is still most commonly found today. It’s what made blockchains famous in the first place.
When Bitcoin popularized blockchain in 2009, following the publication of a white paper authored by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto,8 computer scientists, and cryptographers had already thought about much of blockchain’s underlying technology, mostly in academic circles. For instance, in an effort to develop tools that could securely send payments online. To reach it, computer scientists had looked into cryptography and secure transmission protocols. The use of cryptography to generate public and private keys or the specific algorithms that create long numerical codes (hashes), emerged during this phase of research. In blockchain technologies today, these same design principles have now gained a wider field of application.
Nakamoto’s explosive paper on the proposal for Bitcoin can be seen as the repurposing of many different solutions and technologies published at the right time. The idea of a peer-reviewed and mathematically robust payment system hit a nerve for many, arguably because of the global fallout from the Great Recession. As major financial institutions went bankrupt and caused a global bank run, the silver bullet of a mysterious technology solving at least some of the world’s financial problems sounded curious and inviting. Bitcoin was later popularized as a bankless, cheap, and secure way to pay for things, creating value by recording transactions as secure and immutable. Its core underlying value is the trust of its users that it will be accepted as a form of payment—just like in the case of national currencies around the world—and that, due to blockchain’s technological properties, it cannot be faked or hacked. More recently, however, its design principle got popularity in broader industries, including journalism, digital advertising, audience analysis, music, and others.
The history behind
In the mid-1960s, Ted Nelson coined the term hypertext and envisioned a web with two-way links, which would require the approval of the person whose page was being linked to. Had Nelson’s system prevailed, it would have been possible for small payments to accrue to those who produced the content. The entire business of journalism and blogging would have turned out differently. Instead, the Web became a realm where aggregators could make more money than content producers. Tim Berners-Lee, the English computer engineer who created the protocols of the Web in the early 1990s, considered including some form of rights management and payments. But he realized that would have required central coordination and made it hard for the Web to spread wildly. So he rejected the idea. As the Web was taking off in 1994, there also appeared new media that were paid for by the dial-up online services, such as AOL and Compuserve, to supply content, market their services, and moderate bulletin boards that built up communities of members. When the open Internet became an alternative to these proprietary online services, it seemed to offer an opportunity to take control of the marketing strategy and subscribers. Back then, most of the news services were charging a small fee or subscription, but ad agencies were so enthralled by the new medium that they flocked to buy the banner ads developed for websites. Thus it made sense for the media to retarget their audiences for the potential advertisers.
Yet it was not a sustainable business model. It encourages clickbait rather than stories that had value to readers worth paying for. Consumers were conditioned to believe that content should be free. It took two decades to put that genie back in the bottle.
In the late 1990s, there was an attempt to create new Web protocols that could embed on a page the information needed to handle a small payment, which would allow electronic wallet services to be created by banks or entrepreneurs. It was never implemented, partly because of the complexity of banking regulations. These days the efforts are renewed — media owners are looking in the direction of micropayment protocols again. These micropayment protocols still have not been written. But Bitcoin may be making that unnecessary, turning things to ease.
Do you have a problem? Just blockchain it
Today, people are starting to use Bitcoin to develop micropayment services, such as ChangeTip and Bitwall, that have tiny transaction costs and aren't controlled by the antiquated banking system or middlemen merchants such as Amazon and Apple. This helps to avoid the mental and financial transaction costs that have such payment systems as PayPal, which so far fails to invent its own frictionless micropayment system.
The implementation of the micropayment systems could lead to a whole new era of creativity. It would permit today’s content creators, from major media companies to basement bloggers, to be able to sell digital copies of their articles, songs, games, and art by the piece. In addition to allowing them to pay the rent, it would have the worthy benefit of encouraging people to produce content valued by users rather than having news sites become totally beholden to advertisers. A flourishing culture ensued. Easy and frictionless coin systems that allow us to buy digital content on impulse would support journalists who want to be under obligation to their readers rather than just to their advertisers -- as well as support anyone else who wants to make a living producing creative things.
Building news services that plan to combine professional journalism with input from the users has lots of advantages. Some users are more willing to use their time than their money to pay for something they appreciate so this model lets people pay for the service through their work. At the same time, if they do not want to pay, they still can share, recommend or comment. Long-term, such a model can create a fully autonomous, self-governed, and truly decentralized news network that pays the content producers. For instance, people could produce local news themselves, which would be important to get more marginal demographics interested in the content.
While the discussion on the most effective models can last for a long, I suggest going precise. Bitcoin could help journalism, offering unique solutions to some of the industry's persistent challenges and here’s how:
Transparent and Secure Payment Systems: One of the main hurdles journalists face is ensuring fair compensation for their work. Traditional payment systems often involve intermediaries, high transaction fees, and lengthy processing times. Bitcoin's decentralized nature and blockchain technology can revolutionize this aspect by enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. This transparency ensures that journalists receive their payments promptly and with reduced fees, enhancing financial stability and autonomy.
Crowdfunding and Micropayments: Bitcoin's divisibility allows for micropayments, enabling readers to contribute small amounts of money for specific articles or journalists they wish to support. This microtransaction model can provide a sustainable revenue stream for journalists, encouraging high-quality content creation and fostering a direct relationship between journalists and their audience. Additionally, Bitcoin's global reach and ease of use can facilitate crowdfunding campaigns for investigative journalism, giving reporters the resources they need to pursue in-depth research and reporting.
Combating Censorship and Press Freedom: Bitcoin's decentralized and censorship-resistant nature can safeguard press freedom and protect journalists working in politically sensitive environments. By embracing Bitcoin, news organizations can bypass traditional banking systems that may be prone to censorship or government control. Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, provide an alternative means of accepting donations and support from individuals who wish to support independent journalism in areas where press freedom is under threat.
Immutable and Verifiable Content: Blockchain technology, the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, offers a solution to the problem of trust in journalism. By storing article metadata or content hashes on the blockchain, journalists can provide proof of publication, timestamping, and immutable records. This feature enhances transparency and accountability in the industry, enabling readers to verify the authenticity and integrity of news articles. Journalists can leverage blockchain technology to combat fake news and disinformation, and ensure that their work remains unaltered and credible.
Global Reach and Financial Inclusion: Bitcoin's borderless nature can enhance journalism's global reach and accessibility. By accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment, news organizations can cater to a global audience, especially in regions where traditional financial systems are inadequate or inaccessible. Bitcoin's low transaction fees and the absence of intermediaries make it an ideal tool for facilitating cross-border payments, enabling journalists to monetize their work without barriers.
Bitcoin, with its unique characteristics and underlying blockchain technology, presents a range of opportunities for the journalism industry. It is an influential yet subtle force changing our society and it can no longer be ignored that soon might turn to a new approach to how we interact with data, even if the use cases are hard to see now. With The technology Bitcoin operates on, allows for building new decentralized web services. They will hardly supplant the now dominant, centralized services like Facebook and Google though: these two models will largely co-exist and the bigger platforms will be influenced by the newcomers.
To conclude, by leveraging the transparency, security, and decentralization that Bitcoin offers, journalists can enhance their financial stability, combat censorship, foster trust, and reach a global audience. Embracing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can empower journalists, support independent reporting, and shape the future of journalism in a rapidly changing digital landscape.