Civil, under ethereum and ConsenSys, is the response to an ever growing discussion in journalism involving fake news. Their opening statement on their website is, “Civil’s mission in journalism: supporting it, distributing it, and protecting its ideals”. Civil aims to resolve problems posed to the media such as “echo chambers” and other technological disruptions that are at the hands of varying search engines and social media platforms. Essentially, the goal is to un-disrupt journalism with the use of blockchain.
Civil’s platform is based off of the ethereum blockchain that can allow newsrooms to post content that no one could alter or remove. Ethereum-based contracts also have the possibility of enabling other innovative methods of earning, as well as distributing revenue to various content creators. Civil may also conduct an experiment, per allowance of blockchain, which will use an ethereum-based ERC-20 token. Readers and several newsrooms can soon have the ability to enforce journalistic standards on media. This is something that Coolidge called “Civil economic game”. He states that the game has yet to begin, but that a sale of the CVL crypto token is fast approaching.
Newsrooms, such as Documented, have already began publishing on the new Civil platform. Documented’s basis covers the New York immigrant community in hand with the national policies that affect them. Cannabis Wire, who tracks development all throughout the marijuana industry, is also using Civil. Another one of Civil’s users is Sludge. Sludge focuses on the reporting of lobbying and political interest influence. Coolidge reports that nearly 100 other journalists have signed up for the platform.
To fully understand Civil’s plans for transforming the journalism world, you might need to first have an understanding of the ethereum blockchain. Ethereum blockchain isn’t controlled by one specific party, but stored throughout a large network of computers. That means that any article published on the Civil platform cannot be changed by one party, including the government, or taken down. This includes being hack-proof. Of course, that is a perk that any journalist can get behind with excitement. However, many Civil articles live within newsrooms “centralized” servers, which means they can possibly be taken down. Some journalists have experienced this “take down”, but the idea seems solid for the future.
At the moment, most journalists and companies are eager for the positive possibilities within Civils platform, as opposed to the potential issues like a “take-down”.
Civil’s website is currently set up the be extremely information based on how it works. The “How It Works” page has their mission statement and an informational video. The “Constitution” page discusses all the information you’ll need to know; it’s a very helpful read. Here, you can also find how to launch a newsroom. Civil’s newsroom registry is live this summer, 2018. On this tab, you can figure out how to apply.
- How To Launch A Newsroom:
Although this can also be found on the tab, these are the specific steps to launching through Civil.
- Submit a character of your newsroom’s mission
- Submit a roster
- Meet the Civil Constitution’s ethical standards
- Stake Civil tokens
A more descriptive outline of the civil registry can be found in one of their blog posts at: https://blog.joincivil.com/the-civil-registry-a-tcr-for-quality-journalism-a2452f363665
Civil’s blog can be found linked on their website or at https://blog.joincivil.com/. This includes more informative reads and blog posts. It also includes posts about people who use their platform, like Cannabis Wire.
- Get In Touch With Civil:
- General Inquiries: [email protected]
- Support Inquiries: [email protected]
- Job Inquiries: [email protected]
- Media Inquiries: [email protected]
- Partnership Inquiries: [email protected]
