96% of iPhone users opt-out of app tracking, once they upgraded to IOS 14.5. The new operating system forces apps to ask users for permission to track. The usual answer: No, thanks. LINK
Fake customer reviews and why they are difficult to stop
Last week a data leak revealed a massive scam with fake reviews. Up to 200,000 users were paid to post five start reviews of products on Amazon. Now the company seems to have taken quick action, removing some sellers. LINK
People who joined ordered the products and were later refunded. The database containing the information on how this system worked was found by Safety Detectives. Fake reviews are a considerable trust problem. The issue is not easy to stop entirely:
”… what are platforms like Amazon doing to combat this issue? In 2019 alone, Amazon spent more than $500 million and employed more than 8,000 people to reduce fraud and abuse on its platform. And in our study, we found that Amazon was, in fact, deleting around 40% of these fake reviews — but it took them an average of more than 100 days after a fake review was posted to remove it.” Harvard Business Review
Increasing lobbying for digital currencies in the US
There is a considerable push in lobbying activities in the US, funded by companies who want to influence government regulation of cryptocurrencies and digital exchanges using blockchain. In March this year industry representatives had sent an 8-page letter with suggested actions to the president.
Further:
Lobbying disclosure records show at least 65 contracts as of early 2021 that addressed industry matters such as digital currency, cryptocurrency or blockchain, up from about 20 in 2019. Some of the biggest spenders on lobbying include Ripple, Coinbase — the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States — and trade groups like the Blockchain Association. LINK ($)
China seeks US patent for a blockchain-based DNS system
The DNS (domain name system) is a global system to connect IP addresses to website names. Now the Chinese government has filed for a US patent of an alternative system, which would compete with the network managed by ICANN.
”The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the internet division under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, filed a U.S. patent application (pdf) for a “Blockchain multi-party shared-governance-based system for maintaining domain name information.”
Last week we saw several big deals for content companies:
Kakao Entertainment from South Korea acquired serial fiction app Radish for $440 million. LINK
In January 2021 a similar platform called Wattpad has been acquired by Naver, another entertainment company from South Korea, for $600 million. LINK
Believe, a new type of music label from France wants to go public at a valuation of two billion. The music business has recently seen rising revenues after a long decline. LINK ($)
Fewcents aims to enable micropayments for articles, videos or podcasts
The idea is to offer an alternative to subscriptions or advertising. According to estimates, only 1 to 5% of all users are willing to sign up for a subscription. The Fewcents software would enable one time micropayments for content. The company already has customers in India and Asia. LINK
BLOCKCHAIN
The Economist expects the introduction of “Govcoins”
The Economist discussed the prospect of digital money issued by governments in a title story last week. If applied this could transform central banks into a new type of digital service bank. Everyone could have an account with the central bank in this new world of banking. One driver: Such a system could reduce transaction costs and lead to more safety. Ironically though, money would be more centralized, not less.
Such a “metamorphosis of central banks from the aristocrats of finance to its labourers sounds far-fetched, but it is underway. Over 50 monetary authorities, representing the bulk of global GDP, are exploring digital currencies.”
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the largest banks in the world by total assets, appears to have quietly allowed public users to activate China’s central bank digital currency wallet inside its mobile app LINK
Thank You for reading.
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WordProof is a start-up enabling easy timestamps for content, then stores that info on a blockchain
Timestamps are a potential game-changer for verification, ownership of content and search results and on social media
Integrations are currently available for WordPress, Shopify and via an API
The start-up from Amsterdam received some financial support from the EU and other sources
Introducing something new
In June 2019 the Dutch developer and entrepreneur Sebastiaan van der Lans entered the stage of WordCamp Europe in Berlin to talk about something new. The title of his talk was: “From WordPress to Blockchain: The future is 100% open source”. Thirty minutes later he received a standing ovation from an audience of roughly 2,500 WordPress developers. Why? Van der Lans took the audience on a journey from the past to the future. He started with the general benefits of the internet for everyone, then moved on to talk about the benefits of open source, where value is created for everyone.
Sebastiaan van der Lans, Founder WordProof.io. Photo: Bob Bronshoff, 2000.
Van der Lans is a strong advocate for open source, because of positive experiences. He is the founder of a web agency and has years of experience. For example, he and his team created a GDPR plug-in, which became very popular. While this project did not generate any direct revenue, the success created tangible benefits for the team and the company.
From publishing to finance to general business the talk advocated a vision of inclusion and fair distribution. WordPress itself is a good example. The software is open-source, it can be self-hosted and used for free. It has become the most popular Content Management System (CMS) worldwide, with a share of 40%, far ahead of commercial platforms. That share of usage has increased in the past years, despite fierce competition in this field.
Blockchain and decentralized communities
But then the presentation took a turn to yet another topic: Sebastiaan talked about blockchain. About decentralized versus centralized organisations. Blockchain is an enabler of new business models and could be a push forward, specifically in the field of content and creative services. A key reason: With blockchain, it is possible to exchange value without middlemen. Only at the very end of the talk, he introduced where opensource, new models and blockchain were all incorporated: The concept of timestamps for content. The presentation received a standing ovation.
A screenshot from the presentation where WordProof was introduced the first time
What is a timestamp?
Essentially, a timestamp is simple. It’s a record of the time and day when a piece of content was published. Based on this information a hash is generated, comparable to a fingerprint. This hash is then stored in a blockchain. As a result, the origin of the content can be verified and that the stated information is correct. It can be trusted because blockchain records are trustable. When the content is changed, the timestamp is updated, creating a transparent record of the content creation process. This way there is a record that can be checked.
It is a simple addition, but there are a number of benefits – for content origin, for ownership and specifically for search:
Firstly, with a timestamp, a publisher can present proof that the content is original. Everyday content, such as articles, photos, videos is used without permission. So far, there is no real handle to fight this. With timestamps, publishers have a way to legally fight such practices. Securing against unauthorized content use does not have to be all commercial, it can be applied to secure creative commons assets as well.
Secondly, a timestamp provides a way to determine who published something first. In the news and information business, the time of publication is an important factor. Being first and not just copying content distinguishes one organization from the other.
Thirdly, with timestamps search could be become considerably better. So far it is relatively easy to trick a search engine. For example, old content can appear as new content if the publishing data is changed. While Google and Co. of course have ways to detect some fraud, it is an ongoing arms race. Determining original quality content is costly. Timestamps could make it much easier to find good information. This could result in a profound change. Once search engines start to consider verified timestamps as a mark of quality, many dynamics of content publishing could change.
Content publishing without timestamps is comparable to cars without registration plates
Why would timestamps be such an important change? For comparison: Just imagine a world where cars were introduced a couple of years ago and are now wildly popular. People enjoy the freedom of being able to go anywhere in a short time. But, in this world, number plates were not invented. When an accident happens, resulting in either a small scratch or injured passengers, it would be almost impossible to identify the cars (and the drivers) involved in the incident. There would be an incentive to hide your identity. There would be no insurance.
What the example shows is this: Sometimes little additions define the characteristics of an entire system. For content, publishing timestamps could be that addition, the missing element which changes many aspects for the better. Since the introduction of the internet, we have witnessed a revolution in how anyone can publish information. We moved from a world where finding certain information would result in spending days or even weeks in a library to getting instant access. Positive again. This is very positive.
But without content data that can be verified, the entire system can be tricked by a few bad actors. Adding verifiable data could change this. Search is a business generating billions of Euros. With timestamps, great content could gain more value in many ways. The good stuff could be displayed on top of searches, there could be models to support authors. This is why timestamps are so interesting. Adding verifiable information in an easy way would help to fight misinformation without making publishing too complex.
How to use the WordProof plugin
Timestamps could be for digital content was number plates are for cars. How difficult is it to install and use this system? First, search for Wordproof in the plug-in section of WordPress. The installation is simple, no blockchain experience needed. One needs to register on WordProof.io for an account. Articles will then automatically get a timestamp. When the content is changed or updated, the timestamp is updated as well. As an option, the timestamp can be displayed along with the content.
Video: Installing WordProof in less than 5 minutes
Steps for the installation
The first step for the installation is to install the WordProof plugin in WordPress. Then the website needs to be registered on WordProof. The set-up is guided and simple, there is no prior knowledge of blockchain needed. Once everything is done all articles will be timestamped and additional information can be displayed under the content. Below is the information which would be shown if the link is opened.
A timestamp of an article, showing information when the content was published.
What does it cost?
To try it out Wordproof.io offers a free tier, which covers 10 timestamps per month. For websites with a more frequent publication, the pricing ranges between 10 and 40 Euro per month. The biggest standard package available covers 1500 timestamps per month on ten different websites and there’s an API available for large users. Some publishers timestamp over 10000 articles a month
The idea of incurring extra costs for authentication and verifications of content will be a barrier forfor adoption. But, as the example with the number plates for cars tried to show: Paying a small amount for trustable content might be a very good investment.
Timestamps to fight misinformation and copyright infringement
Given the problems with misinformation, many media companies should be interested in timestamps. But it might take time towards broad acceptance. Given how easy it is to publish fabricated content there is a latent demand by quality news providers to differentiate reliable information. Search engines need to wake up and start considering timestamps as a mark of quality and a reason to rank such content higher.
Smaller websites should consider using Wordproof, specifically if they publish original content. Paid plans of Wordproof comes with a tool to fight copyright infringements. For larger media companies timestamps are making sense even now. Being able to verify content is a quality in demand. Once search engines start to consider timestamps as an element of ranking, the trend to timestamp content could become the standard, in a relatively short time.
And there is a big driver towards change in the content world. If falsified content is not a motivation, ad fraud should be. Around the world, there is a whole shadow industry aiming to trick search engines and digital ad networks. Ad fraud is estimated at 40 billion US-Dollar per year. In 2023 the amount per year could reach 100 billion.
WordProof as a startup
WordProof has done well working on the idea of timestamps. The company started with small funds in 2019. Then, in June 2020 the team won the amount of one million Euro in a contest of the European Commission. The idea for timestamps came out first in the pan-European competition “Blockchains for social good”. WordProof managed to win in a field of 175 entries.
Dutch news publishers as first customers
The company has won a number of customers. Dutch news publisher NRC for example is using the timestamps for business content. The company uses up to 10.000 timestamps per month, in order to enhance Search Engine results over time. According to WordProof implementation of the system took just four hours. But there are additional use cases, too. Amsterdam Vintage Watches for example uses blockchain and timestamps to ensure the identity, authenticity and ownership of expensive watches.
The Trusted Web Foundation provides background and education
To help with educating users and organizations the team behind WordProof founded The Trusted Web Foundation in 2020. The idea is to have an entity ”that educates, empowers, and accelerates all stakeholders of the internet to land a vision and operationalize timestamping; from consumers to governments, from publishers to policymaker, and from e-commerce platforms to advertisers and media buyers.”
Search engine cooperation announced in 2021
In May 2021 Wordproof.io announced the first partnership with a search engine. A startup called Presearch will incorporate timestamps in search results. Users can easily see the information, even before clicking on content. Presearch is a new and relatively small search offering. But this is a start. The startup currently has 1,5 million registered users. Not many related to the market leader, but more than enough for meaningful tests for timestamps.
Outlook
It will take time for the idea of timestamps to evolve further. But the concept has all the potential to become a mark of quality. In a not too far away future people could see better search results. Once that becomes more common the switch could be fast. Producers of quality content get a number of benefits from this.
It’s a plus that this initiative towards the trusted web is started by a company deeply rooted in the open-source ecosystem. By combining open source and blockchain technologies effective ways to bring back trust to the internet are in the making. It is positive, too, that the approach is supported with European funds.
This article is the first one published by TruBlo using a timestamp. The information is displayed below.
Please join this week: On Wednesday, April 28 at 15:00 CEST (until 16:30) TruBlo teams up with Blockstart and Startup Lithuania for an online event -> Exploring Blockchain Ecosystem – Collaboration between startups and SMEs.
”If we had a choice, would any of us want to be tracked online for the sake of seeing more relevant digital ads? We are about to find out”, reports The New York Times
Because today, Monday, April 26, Apple will start to offer updates to iOS 14.5. With this release comes a new privacy tool: App Tracking Transparency.
The new rule on Apple devices running iOS is: If an app wants to follow you to share usage information with advertisers, they need permission from you. If you decline, data collection must be stopped.
Trust in a media brands might rely as much on design and general appearance as on the actual reporting
“A new Reuters Institute report finds that editorial standards and journalistic practices may be less important for trust in the news than audience impressions about brand reputations and the look and feel of how information is presented.”
It can be a profitable business to shame someone online.
The way it works is allegations of wrongdoing are published with the full name of the person, usually on one of many dedicated websites.
Whether the allegations are true does not really matter. Often it is impossible to check. If you are the victim there is no straight way to take down the damaging content.
This is why “reputation agencies” are in business, to help with the removal. But the creators of the slander websites and those who offer the clean-up might be the same, says a report by The New York Times. Charges for such services be as high as $20,000.
A key reason why slander websites can do damage is how search engines handle this kind of content. The negative comments and reports tend to show up high in search results, for example, because they link to actual profiles of the user on Facebook, websites, etc.
Why are search engines not aware of how this works? For such content, they could double-check or introduce labels that the claims are “dubious” or even “unchecked allegations”. Hopefully, a high profile article like the one from The New York Times helps to initiate change here.
Bloomberg has an interesting background story on the engineering behind popular music used in TikToks. While the rise of certain songs appears to be organic, in reality, multiple buttons are being pushed.
Substack offers advance payment of $200K and more if well-known writers switch over
You may not know what Substack is. But potentially you are subscribing to a newsletter that runs on the platform, whether for free or for a fee.
Substack’s main business model is straightforward. It lets newsletter writers sell subscriptions to their work, and it takes 10 per cent of any revenue the writers generate (writers also have to fork over another 3 per cent to Stripe, the digital payments company)…
To get more good content, Substack currently makes lucrative offers to well-known journalists. The platform offers high advance payments, which in some cases would more than double monthly income.
Only writers get the offer.
”Substack’s biggest investors… are banking on a future for journalists that doesn’t leave much space for editors, copy editors, fact-checkers, or even much of a business side. Mostly just writers, a technology platform, and a whole lot of revenue to split.”
There is a lot of speculation here. Because it is not clear nor sure whether Substack can help multiple writers to build a lasting subscription business.
”Colette” short film wins first Oscar for Facebook
”The 25-minute film follows former French Resistance member Colette Marin-Catherine as she travels to Germany for the first time in 74 years. “Colette” was created for the World War II-set VR video game “Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.”
The film was produced by Oculus Studios (a subsidiary of Facebook) and Respawn Entertainment, which is part of EA (Electronic Arts). It is the first film from the game industry to win an Oscar.
Cryptocurrency founders providing funds for COVID-19 relief fund for India
In the face of the catastrophic COVID-19 wave that hit India several cryptocurrency founders and early investors got together, providing money for a relief fund. LINK
Profiles of different blockchain offerings
Everyone agrees that there is a lot of “noise in the ecosystem” for blockchain and crypto money.
”Basically, it’s a challenge of separating the players from the pretenders. But there is a solution now. Last summer, we acquired Blockdata and it’s relaunched today with rich profiles on notable blockchain vendors to help enterprises understand the most promising players across a number of categories.”
In March 2021 crypto exchanges reached a volume of $1.3 trillion, a new record high.
The volume of trading in total reached almost 50% of the trading volume on the traditional stock exchange NYSE. If the crypto exchanges show that they can handle such volume and level of service, this will further advance acceptance.
But there are many other aspects which need to mature, too.
The market for cryptocurrencies experiences high volatility. The price for Bitcoins fell in recent weeks, after an all-time high. Such a rollercoaster ride is not for everyone.
Around the world, there are many regulatory challenges. The situation is currently different in almost every country.
This is the re-used version of the TruBlo newsletter. Every week we provide Short news about trust, content and blockchain.
TruBlo Project Update
Please join us for NGI Forum 2021 – the top event for the entire NGI initiative – shaping the Internet of Humans. TruBlo will team up with Ontochain. The goal is to demonstrate by example how blockchain solutions can benefit a range of use cases. –> Register NGI Forum 2021
Updates this week:
TRUST
Twitter investigates its recommendation algorithm
The social media company announced a new program called “Responsible Machine learning Initiative”. The goal is to let data scientists study whether the algorithms can cause “unintentional harm” – for example by recommending certain topics or accounts. The program promised to make its findings public. LINK
Massive Facebook data leak was not reported to EU authorities, leading to an investigation
Ireland has opened a GDPR investigation against Facebook. The reason is a big, initially undetected data leak that affected more than 530 million user accounts. A dataset of the accounts was found earlier in 2021. Facebook then said that the problem had been fixed in 2019. But under GDPR, the EU data protection framework, a company should have informed authorities about the leak. Facebook did not do that, hence the investigation. LINK
CONTENT
Instagram extends tests to hide the “like” count from posts
“…the idea with hiding Like counts was about reducing the anxiety and embarrassment that surrounds posting content on the social network. That is, people would stress over whether their post would receive enough Likes to be deemed “popular.” LINK
How “trending topics” on Twitter can lead to “content collapse”
You might have seen this too: A discussion on social media, about any topic. But then one opinion or reply results in an angry storm of messages. The linked article provides an example and argues that “trending topics” on Twitter contribute to this problem. One reason: Content for one audience is all of a sudden presented to another audience, with different views. Then the disagreement begins and often spirals downwards. LINK
A better approach to reduce online harassment
The current approach of social media platforms to reduce online harassment is to create a checkbox and to ask “is this content ok?” But this does not work very well. Further, it harms people who have the job of sorting through such content manually to decide. A different and potentially better way could be to enable external parties to create better tools and protection.
”By letting third parties build moderation and safety tools, social media platforms could limit harassment — and give users more agency in how they engage.”
Interesting arguments in this article. Opening the platforms could lead to a landscape of multiple filter tools for the single user, with different layers of protection and containment. LINK
Epic Games collected $1 billion to create virtual worlds which can look like a movie
”If you saw the 2018 movie Ready Player One, you may remember the Oasis: a glitzy, fast-paced metaverse with gleaming cities, beautiful people (or, avatars, to be precise), and excitement of many varieties; in short, the perfect escape from the drudgery of real life.”
Epic Games now has the money to create such a world. And the company has the technology, too. In May 2020 Epic released a short demo film of what is possible with “Unreal Engine 5”, which powers video game creation. The level of detail, the lights, the sound – every aspect is almost like a movie. Whether we like it or not, we all might be the stars in one, soon. There is a link to that demo in the linked article.
“Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” (SMEs) are super-important across the EU, for business and employment. But they are often too small to adopt technology early. Blockstart, an EU funded project, offers funding for blockchain startups with specific ideas for the SME sector. Per funding up to 20,000 Euro are available. The call is open until May 26, 2021. LINK
Big week for crypto: Coinbase listed, Canada approves Ethereum ETFs
Last week Coinbase went public. It is a big step of a now very valuable company. Coinbase is an exchange for cryptocurrencies. In another step of maturity towards more maturity for cryptocurrencies, Canadian authorities approved two Ethereum ETFs (exchange-traded funds).
Some links, if you want to learn more about the background:
EBC will be entirely virtual this year, of course, as a result of the pandemic. Nevertheless, big events are helpful to see and experience how topics and sentiments evolve. TruBlo will be represented at the European Blockchain Conference through Montse Guardia, General Manager of Alastria, a partner in this project.
The panel will start on Friday, April 16, at 12:00 PM. Montse Guardia will share the discussion with Margherita Leder, COO, TMP Group and David Palmer, Blockchain Lead at Vodafone.
EBCvirtual is designed as a comprehensive one-week event filled with keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, one-to-one meetings and high-level networking (as much as it is possible with current restrictions).
Even if you don’t attend the conference – it’s worth your time to scroll through the (long) list of attendees. To some extend the mix of people shows the renewed interest in blockchain and virtual currencies. The conference managed to attract many interesting startups, mixed with representatives from larger firms and members of the EU political community.
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