Does NewsBlocks need a blockchain?
A response to blockchain critics
From Blockchain, Beyond The Hype:
- Are you trying to remove intermediaries or brokers?
YES. Currently news data and its pricing is controlled by news agencies, newspapers and other centralised companies.
2. Are you working with digital assets (versus physical assets)?
YES. NewsBlocks primary innovation is that news is data.
3. Can you create a permanent, authoritative record of the digital asset?
YES. We are creating the first global archive of news. It’s amazing to think that this currently does not exist.
4. Do you require hi-performance transactions?
NO. However, as blockchain technology improves, more functions can be moved onto the chain.
5. Do you want/need to rely on a trusted third party?
NO. Participants should be able to add news and have it verified without relying on any trusted third party.
6. Are you managing contractual relationships of value exchange?
YES. There is currently no open marketplace for news. There is no system that lets people know the price of a piece of news.
7. Do you require shared write access?
YES. The system should be open to anyone who wants to add news.
8. Do contributors know and trust each other?
NO. The system must be able to deal with people who want to distort or delete the news for their own benefit.
9. Do you need to be able to control functionality.
NO. The format of news that is added to the chain should be independent of any technology used.
10. Should transactions be public?
YES. There should be an audit trail of all news that is added to the chain.
ANSWER — Strong case for a blockchain
Mark Devlin is the CEO of NewsBlocks.
