Introduction
The internet is a vast pool of knowledge and its potential is tremendous in many ways. The pool of knowledge is not yet fully organized and whatever existing centralized system is available to offer access to the knowledge base is either unsustainable or vulnerable to a single point failure. The accuracy of the information available is also a question mark on some of the subjects/topic. Blockchain is an emerging technology which is offering a solution to so many types of use-cases in day to day life. It brings transparency & offers business opportunities to the ecosystem. Surprisingly online education & knowledge base is still a gray area in the context of blockchain implementation.
The existing knowledge base like Wikipedia has also its issues such as 'accuracy of the data in some of the topic/subjects', 'sustainability' as it mostly relies upon voluntary contribution and it does not have an economy to value the time & effort of the users. Therefore a better solution is long due.
The Problem Interface & the solution by Lunyr
(1) Centralization
The traditional crowd-sourced knowledge base is centralized and hence vulnerable to single point failure. In the event of such a failure, the individuals will be unable to access the knowledge base.
The solution by Lunyr is to make the knowledge base decentralized, autonomous in a way that there is no central authority who will control the information, the interaction of the knowledge base happens through a smart contract powered with blockchain technology.
(2) Censorship
The traditional centralized knowledge bases are vulnerable to censorship. In a censored environment the users do not express themselves properly and the interaction is also oppressive in nature. So there will be certain instances the centralized knowledge base may face prohibition and that will prevent the users from having to access the knowledge base.
The solution by Lunyr is to offer a platform which is censor-resistant. Further, the decentralization and censor-resistance are both compatible with each other. The individuals will never face any oppression in such a platform.
(3) Inaccuracy
In traditional centralized knowledge bases, the submitted articles can also be edited by other users. That means while one can correct false information, one can also falsify information. In most popular articles this problem will come to the attention and hence can be corrected. But what about the less popular articles, which generally go unnoticed for a longer period and that may contain false information or inadequate information. You can take the example of Wikipedia. So we must admit that the current system of the knowledge base is not adequate and inaccurate in some of the cases.
The solution by Lunyr offers mandatory peer review. All the articles submitted in the Lunyr platform go through a mandatory review process in which they are checked for reliability and accuracy. Further, as the review process is powered with a token incentive system, the review of the data is fair, transparent and decentralized.
(4) No incentive for editing and correcting or reviewing the submissions
In the traditional centralized knowledge bases, there is no incentive system to encourage authors or knowledgeable person to review or edit a submission. While some people voluntarily do this in knowledge base like Wikipedia, this model is not sustainable and may not add value in the long run, because for everyone time is a valuable resource. The best alternative is a token-incentive model
The solution by Lunyr offers a token incentive model where users will be encouraged to review and validate the information and for that, they will be paid with certain incentive. This model can be sustainable in the long run and can improve the ecosystem as well.
Brief Overview of Lunyr
Lunyr is a decentralized crowd-sourced knowledge base platform on the top of Etherum blockchain which allows users to contribute information, peer review the submitted information and also rewards the users with app tokens for peer reviewing the information submitted in the platform. This platform ensures the adequacy and accuracy of the information through mandatory peer review and token incentive system.
The goal of Lunyr, in the long run, is to develop a next-generation knowledge base API which developers can use to create dapps in AI, VR, AR, etc.
It is available to download for different versions like Windows, Mac, Linux etc.
How it works
The users who submit or edit a piece of information is known as a contributor. Once the information is submitted it is passed through a mandatory peer review process. In this model, a contributor also needs to peer review the information submitted by others.
Every time a contributor submits information, that incurs gas cost. This "gas cost" for submitting information can act a deterrence against spamming or abusing the system.
Any information submitted cannot be committed to the knowledge base of the system unless it passes through the peer review.
In the peer review process the submitted information is checked for reliability & accuracy of the data and then validated accordingly.
If the submitted information passes the "peer review", then the contributor earns app tokens.
App Tokens
(1) LUN
- It is used to reward the contributor at the end of the reward period(2-week).
- The amount of LUN tokens that can be rewarded is based on the CBN token hold by the end of the reward period.
- LUN tokens come from two sources: "from advertising" & "by creating periodically at 2-weeks interval" .
(2) CBN (Contribution Token)
- CBN is used to calculate how many LUN an individual can be rewarded for a particular reward period.
- CBN is consumed automatically, once the LUN rewards are distributed over the reward period(2-week).
(3) HNR (Honor Token)
- HNR token is used to propose & vote on issues of Dispute & Resolution system.
- Proposal & votes consume HNR.
- HNR is only held by the users who are committed to the ecosystem to align their proposal.
Important Note
The contributors earn CBN & HNR tokens for all successful contributions. CBN & HNR cannot be transferred from one individual to another. 85% of the LUN pool goes to contributors and 15% goes to the Lunyr platform. For advertising, LUN tokens are required.
Getting started with Lunyr
- Go to https://lunyr.com/
- It is available in Windows, Mac, Linux. Select the preferred version of your choice to download.
- It is a heavy file, so wait for some time to get it downloaded & installed in your system.
- You can login with an ETH address and you can also have multiple accounts.
- In the interface you can see Articles, Feed etc. You can perform tasks like authoring, editing, etc. For that click on "Write".
Advantages
- It is decentralized, censor-resistant & autonomous.
- It has an incentive model which encourages people to contribute information, peer review information & earn rewards in the form of App tokens.
- The advertisers can also take advantage of this platform.
- The model is designed in such a way that the abuse, spam, plagiarized content can be checked.
Disadvantages
- Some of the repositories have not yet made open-source. I strongly feel that the knowledge base platform should always remain open source as that can enable the ecosystem to grow properly and add value adequately.
Overall Assessment
Conclusion
Lunyr has really done a commendable job by bringing the knowledge base to the blockchain and make it decentralized and sustainable which can really solve the problem of a traditional crowd-sourced knowledge base where the key issues are centralization, inaccuracy, censorship issues. But Lunyr's vision is not just a decentralized knowledge base, the long-term vision is to become data providing API which can out-source data to train AI, VR, AR, etc. So the next generation of education can be largely benefited and it is a viable solution to the existing state of the crowd-sourced knowledge base.
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DISCLAIMER
This is not financial advice, nor a guarantee or promise in regards to any result that may be obtained from using the above content. The information provided here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered as financial and/or investment advice. No person should make any kind of financial decision without first consulting their own financial adviser and/or conducting their own research and due diligence.