Is Blockchain the Future of News? Tech Startup Civil Makes the Case

Original Article: https://techunchecked.com/blockchain-future-of-news-startup-civil

Journalism is in serious need of a make-over. The ad-driven revenue model of modern newsrooms has left the industry scarred with terrible ratings in public trust and public approval. In fact, According to the 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey, 43% of Americans view the news media negatively. If things continue on this path, the future of news looks bleak.

Enter tech startup Civil, a news marketplace that utilizes blockchain technology to fund and regulate the newsrooms they host. With a $5 million investment from software incubator Consensys, Civil finds themselves in a great position to bring quality journalism and productive comment sections back to the public discourse.

How Civil Works
Matthew Iles – CEO of Civil – had a specific idea for the future of news when creating the platform. “We are a cooperatively owned and operated marketplace that connects citizens, people who want to support relevant fact-based journalism, with journalists focused on producing quality, independent news.”

The tech startup runs on the Ethereum platform but does not use their native ETH token. Instead, Civil has created its own cryptocurrency, CVL, that users can purchase. After acquiring CVL, people can contribute directly to the newsrooms that they believe deliver high-quality content. Civil accepts many types of payments, but users of the CVL token definitely gain some perks.

Civil considers token holders under the “Waterline,” and gives them authority in how the marketplace runs. For instance, a newsroom cannot operate Civil’s publishing tools without gaining community approval first. Users under the waterline can also challenge a newsroom’s legitimacy and revoke their certificate of trust.

After the community whitelists a newsroom, the creators gain access to the Civil blockchain. Now they are able to upload their content onto the marketplace using Ethereum’s smart contracts, which stores information permanently, and customers are able to enjoy exactly what they paid for.

Civil Empowers Users
The traditional process used by newsrooms to bring stories to the public is so muddled with 3rd party interests and political agendas its hard to know which organization to trust. Thus, the “old way” results in passive consumers that are skeptical of the news they hear. People are constantly debating the motives, biases, and restrictions of the news stories they hear. The distrust takes the focus off the facts of a story and warps the public conversation for the worse.

Civil’s solution to mainstream media’s credibility issue is to put their users directly in charge of the newsrooms’ access. In particular, CVL token holders can challenge a newsroom’s authority if they find them to be acting against Civil’s core values of independence. Or, they can just choose not to subscribe to that source.

The future of news is one where users are both the investor and the audience. Meaning journalists are only beholden to the people that consume their work, no one else. With this, people will no longer worry about which 3rd party interests have influence over which stories. The reader and the writer are now on the same side and share a common goal of staying informed.

Another scourge for news consumers is the prevalence of clickbait titles and articles on the web. This is a product of the ad-based revenue model currently in use at most major news organizations. As a journalist, if you are paid for the number of people who see an ad on your article’s page, you are only incentivized to draw clicks to a page, not inform the reader. With Civil, the future of news rewards content creators for presenting relevant information to readers and gaining a following. Otherwise, a newsroom will not receive enough funding from the public to continue operation.

Civil Liberates Journalists
“As a long time former journalist and editor myself, I’ve seen first-hand how ad-driven models negatively impact journalism.” Says Civil Board Member Tom McGeveran, “And being able to introduce a new funding model like this has nearly limitless potential.”

Newsrooms are freed from the 3rd parties that used to interfere with their reporting. Journalists are free to write a story about any company out there and do not have to worry if that affects their advertisers. Writers no longer have to find ways to fit marketing campaigns into their work in order to get paid, an issue that crops up in modern newsrooms. With Civil, as long as the consumer enjoys their work, that is enough to continue working.

Civil affiliated newsgroups have full autonomy over their revenue model. Whether they want to implement a monthly subscription fee or install a pay per view system, it is their choice. Flexibility such as this creates an environment for healthy and functioning newsrooms to grow because different types of reporting work best with different revenue schemes. A reporter can now focus and what they do best and not worry about fitting someone else’s business plan.

As stated before, Civil makes full use of Ethereum’s smart contracts. Essentially, smart contracts are agreements uploaded directly to a blockchain, and can never be altered. In terms of Civil, smart contracts upload the articles and stories published in the marketplace onto the blockchain. The permanence of their work through smart contracts is a new feature for journalists. They no longer have to fear that a corporate overlord can come in and demand their work its taken down. The only one with responsibility for the work is the writer, and for a content creator, nothing can be more liberating.

The Future of News and Civil
Iles says of the future, “In time, we envision a vast ecosystem of app developers, newsmakers, and citizens working together to create a new and sustainable era of accurate information and civil discourse”

The future of news looks drastically different with this tech startup in the game. Cutting out the middleman of 3rd party interests opens up a new journalistic world. Step by step, Civil can regain the trust the public has for newsrooms.

The hope for Civil is that it brings sustainable journalism to consumers, and increases public trust in the news organizations featured on the platform. For the sake of the country’s sanity, I hope they hit the open market soon.

Learn more about civil by clicking here.