Is Google passé — Do blockchain-based Q&As have the potential to leave Google behind

If you thought Google was the zenith of the age of information, you are wrong. Blockchain technology, which has already transformed a string of sectors, has now crawled into dissemination of information as well.

Tools like Google and Wikipedia look perfect as we haven’t seen a better option. These tools have serious limitations though. For instance, if you require information regarding investment in cryptocurrencies or career options in a certain country, it would need hours of hard work, researching various websites in dozens of tabs.

Moreover, you’ll find most sites just keep rephrasing content from a source or two. It is a chaos of information overload where you are always unsure about what is accurate and what not. You have to process bulk of information to squeeze out the content you want.

Structural issues in present content service

In the present setup, anyone can create content for others to consume. What Google does is to find content for you. However, what if there is no answer to the question on the Internet, or it exists in a language you don’t understand.

· Google just lists out the relevant content, without associating questions with those who actually have the capacity to answer them.

· Other content platforms also have large gaps.

· Wikipedia present pre-written content without catering to the specific query a writer is asking.

· Quora and Yahoo Answers are more of fun sites.

· Content on YouTube, Facebook, and forums is spread helter-skelter making it hard to dig out the information you want.

Blockchain-based model of knowledge and wisdom search

Bringing blockchain into the equation, you are able to monetize knowledge in a multi-faceted manner and enable people having expertise in a given subject earn money. For disseminating information, blockchain helps lay down the structure for several use cases:

· asking paid questions

· inserting paywalls in published responses, e-books, online courses, events, training, webinars, and reports

· assembling patrons and donors with access to closed communities

This model brings in a win-win situation for experts as well as those asking questions. The earning incentivizes the experts to take out their time to answer a question. On a pre-determined price set by the writer, people asking questions get a customized answer with no need to scythe through gallons of content. They get pin-pointed reply to their query, with no need to worry about authenticity of content.

Scalability

You can use machine translation to create content into different languages and use algorithm to present it to anyone putting up the question in the language they want. There is no limit to the size of the database and you can have as many writers/audiences as you want on the blockchain network, creating a large, self-updating, multilingual knowledge base.

For the convenience of audiences, you may divide the database into individual thematic sections. The database contains information in the most natural way — questions and answers.

More on the model

As Facebook began its conquest from Harvard students and Uber from the San Francisco region, it is now time for the information revolution as well. Blockchain brings along unparalleled transparency and subsequently, enormous growth potential.

You may create different models related to topics such as technology, sports, science, etc. The model you choose may be a valuable product complimentary to Google, an alternative to Internet forums, a Facebook chat kind of thing, or so on.

Possible threats to a blockchain-based system and resolution

People tend to use the community to publish low-value content for selfish means and it is going to be a threat for the information system we are discussing. The way out is creating a self-regulating platform with a mechanism of moderation, evaluation and content rankings. It is the decentralized community which will take a final decision what content will be published and what not.

You will need to put in place a robust dispute resolution function which stamps out spam, hate, fraud, and plagiarism. A platform that is truly decentralized will put the power into the hands of people to accept or reject content. It won’t be like Wikipedia and Facebook, where all you can do is to complain to the management regarding the content. This will be a system where the community itself will be able to take punitive action, or reward the creators of good content.

An effective way to manage content is to enable users to obtain permissions rather than keeping them stuck in rigid roles. The criteria for a user to receive permissions will be demonstration of knowledge and commitment to the community and the platform. In an autonomous organization, the promotion process will be automated, though in the initial stage, the authority of grant permissions will be with a moderator with higher privileges.

How Stack Overflow and a blockchain-based system stack up

Stack Overflow of Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky is popular site among professional as well as amateur programmers for asking questions and getting answers related to computer programming. It rolled out a more open alternative to earlier question and answer sites. Through membership and active participation, the site allows people to vote questions and answers up or down, or edit questions, quite like Reddit. Users of the platform receive badges for their valued contributions.

A blockchain-based system, such as the one ccFound, founded by its CEO Piotr Michalak, is now coming up, designed to take questions and answers to an altogether different level. It brings in unprecedented transparency, creates an ecosystem for the contributors to earn consistently, and provides a mechanism to promote quality answers.

Closing thoughts

Google is not the summit of the age of information. Rather, in the light of technologies like blockchain, the future looks even brighter as the era of wisdom is ushering in. Tools of the new age will be capable of systematizing the information and handling complex queries, such as specific investment advice or comparison of two scientific experiments. A cutting-edge project like ccFound will rope in paid experts to accumulate knowledge in the most natural way — questions and answers. You will get the precise information you want without an iota of fluff and bluff.

Living in such a world will altogether be a different experience!