Today we are starting the 2nd of three open calls. The call will be open until September 10, 2021. Find all the information [to apply on our website](https://www.trublo.eu/apply/).
If you have questions, please contact us at [info@trublo.eu](mailto:info@trublo.eu)
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Updates this week:
#TRUST
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##How did the FBI recover Bitcoins paid in a ransomware attack?
The recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in the US worried many people that the supply of gas would be threatened. In such an attack, hackers gain access to the IT system of a company and block further usage. In this case, the company paid 75 Bitcoins worth around $4 million.
Surprisingly, the US justice department has now recovered most of these Bitcoins by tracing and later seizing them. It is surprising because so far many would have assumed that such coins could be very difficult to trace and to recover, once paid. It is unclear whether the authorities had information from an insider or were able to trace it by technical means.
Quote from a report in the New York Times.
> “Federal investigators tracked the ransom as it moved through a maze of at least 23 different electronic accounts belonging to DarkSide, the hacking group, before landing in one that a federal judge allowed them to break into, according to law enforcement officials and court documents.”
Another question, asked in the article linked below from VentureBeat: Why did the hackers use Bitcoin (where information can be traced, to some extent) and not another cryptocurrency where this would have been harder? And as important: How can one avoid such ransomware attacks by securing the IT system?
##Sustainability as a driver for blockchain adoption in the fashion industry
Producing fashion is a global business with complex supply chains. As a result, it is almost impossible for a consumer to check how the clothes are produced. This includes where and how materials are sourced, which shop did manufacture them and how they are shipped. The process is so far difficult to document for the fashion companies as well. But the need for transparency and the potential gains for productivity might change this. Blockchain records of supply chains are in demand because more and more consumers demand information about sustainability from fashion brands.
A dark pattern is a website design used to confuse users. For example, such a design aims to keep people from ending a subscription.
There are many tricks and practices. What they have in common is that specific placement of options, words and buttons is combined to make it difficult for you to do what you want. Do you think you can detect such a pattern? Test it. The Markup has a short quiz – very helpful to learn a bit more when to be careful.
##News sources reconsider theory that coronavirus spread from a lab in China: How is this done well?
Here is a difficult, but interesting question: What are the best ways to change the opinion and the reporting about a disputed theory?
Example: So far, there is a theory that the coronavirus has infected patient zero from a wild animal purchased at a Chinese market in Wuhan.
But another, controversial theory is that the virus might have escaped from a medical facility located in that city. In 2020 the majority of media outlets reporting about this topic dismissed the lab story as a potential conspiracy theory.
This year, though, the story is investigated again. While no substantial new facts are available, the view is now that the lab theory could potentially be true. US President Biden has ordered an investigation by intelligence agencies.
What is interesting and relevant here is: How do news institutions communicate such a turn of opinion? What is a good way to be transparent and open about such changes? Such as: “We reported this, and it might be wrong. Instead, this might be the truth.”
This case could be a test.
>“New information often casts out old, but it is unusual for news outlets to acknowledge so publicly that they have changed their understanding of events.”
##How to use disappearing messages on WhatsApp or Signal
On both services, there are settings to let some messages disappear after some days. Signal offers richer features. On WhatsApp, the feature is new.
When can you use this feature?
>“Disappearing messages are an ideal tool for people who are concerned their chats could be checked – especially if there is anything about themselves they want to keep private, says Scott Sammons, information and data specialist Lighthouse IG. “This could apply to a domestic abuse setting or someone, for example, hiding the fact they are LGBTQ.”
On Signal, you can select the time when a message should disappear, between one second and four weeks. The timer starts when the message is read. There is a similar feature for photos and videos.
On WhatsApp, the feature only lets you set a time span of seven days.
##Politicians from South America use Bitcoin announcement for self-promotion
First: It is not yet clear whether countries in South America will adopt cryptocurrencies such as blockchain. But for politicians from the region, the idea is currently attractive and a way to boost one’s profile. This started with El Salvador issuing a law to make Bitcoin a legal tender in the country.
>“El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele set off a movement for political opportunists and crypto-enthusiasts alike.”
In Europe, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central bank, reaffirmed that the position of the ECB has not changed. Lagarde had warned about Bitcoin in January 2021:
> “It’s a highly speculative asset, which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.”
Regarding the position of the ECB towards Bitcoin after the new development in El Salvador, she is quoted to have said:
>“That certainly does not change our approach to crypto-assets and to regulations, supervision, and proper classification that they should be under to avoid misinformation and misleading representations.”
On the other side: In the Netherlands Pieter Hasecamp, the director of the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, which is part of the country’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, has voiced much stronger concerns about the dangers of Bitcoin. In an article, he recommends banning cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands:
>“Cryptocurrencies are unsuitable as a unit of account and means of payment outside the criminal circuit; its use as a store of value is based on the hope that cryptocurrencies will one day replace real money. But that’s not going to happen.”
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision recommends very careful handling of crypto assets by banks, the goal is to avoid that institutions expose themselves to high risk. The Basel Committee sets standards for banking policies, such as how high the number of own assets must be for a bank related to the sum of credits and loans.
The Basel Committee published a paper called [“Prudential treatment of crypto-asset exposures”](https://www.bis.org/bcbs/publ/d519.htm). For cryptocurrency exposure, the Basel Committee proposes a 1250% risk weighting, which is very high.
According to a job ad in the US, Amazon is searching for staff with experience in decentralized finance (DeFi). The position is for a Blockchain Head of Product. Amazon has recently added a “Managed blockchain” offering.
##China aims to be a global leader in Blockchain by 2025
Top telecom and internet regulators in China jointly published guidelines on how the country can transform into a global leader in blockchain as early as 2025. At the same time, Chinese authorities are blocking and curbing cryptocurrency mining operations in the country.
The expectation is that blockchain will be a key building block for the digital economy and a way to modernize governance systems.
Use case: How media companies benefit from timestamps
The second document is a presentation of how NRC, a large Dutch media publisher, uses timestamps for SEO (search engine optimization). A key element here: It can be determined who published the content and when. While search engines are currently not considering timestamps this could change in the near future, because even Google and co. would welcome verifiable data about the content.
Timestamps and disinformation: EU research results
Yet another use case for timestamps is to fight misinformation. In principle this could work in the way of positive proof, in the future. Articles with a valid timestamp could be shown, while content without such quality marks could be filtered down.
Overview:
• Google kept tracking user location
• Apple & privacy – two stories
• Fascinating digitally rendered images
• Digital Currency Initiative at MIT
TRUST
Users switched off location-sharing, but Google kept on tracking
The debate about privacy is not over, just moving from one platform to another, in episodes.
Internal documents released in a lawsuit in Arizona reveal that some people at Google made it difficult for users to use privacy options. Even executives from other departments of Google were confused about those privacy settings.
Google is accused of collecting location data, even when users turned off such location sharing.
”Google continued collecting location data even when users turned off various location-sharing settings, made popular privacy settings harder to find, and even pressured LG and other phone makers into hiding settings precisely because users liked them, according to the documents.”
Apple knows how to advertise – a spot about privacy
Apple has released a TV spot called “Tracked”. It’s advertising. But at the same time it is a strong visual reminder of the what is going on: The story shows a guy named Felix who is followed by everyone he interacts with.
The coffee barista, the taxi driver, all the people from the bank – and they all take the liberty to search trough his stuff.
The short film makes a point about the business belief that a company must follow all of it’s users, simply for a higher chance of getting the next buy.
Privacy and Apple: An entirely different situation in China
Apple is pushing for more privacy in western countries. The situation in China is entirely different. For example: Chinese authorities have full access Apple servers in the country. Of course the reason is pressure from the Chinese government. But what are the details here? An article from “Columbia Journalism Review” examines this strange side-by-side of two different privacy approaches by one company.
Amazon Ring: US police departments have access to millions of videos recorded by smart doorbells
In residential neighbourhoods in the US, chances are that not just one, but multiple cameras are watching you.
The reason is the popularity of smart doorbells with online connections from Ring, a company owned by Amazon.
From a study: “These devices have grown into the largest civilian-surveillance network the US has ever seen”.
Who can watch? Based on settings, the videos are available to US police departments. “One out of 10 US police departments can access videos from millions of home-security cameras without getting a warrant.” (The Guardian)
The fascinating world of entirely rendered dream homes
If you see a beautiful home online, chances are it is not real. The New Yorker has a story about highly realistic backgrounds such as attractive houses and design flats used on Instagram. The catch: All of these are entirely digitally rendered. The realistic look is possible because of improved render software.
Surprising new learning from that article: IKEA uses digitally rendered furniture pictures for the catalogue, since 2004.
Digital Currency Initiative started by MIT
The MIT Media Lab has launched a “Digital Currency Initiative”.
”The goal of the DCI is to bring together the brightest minds at MIT and elsewhere to conduct the research necessary to support the development of digital currency and blockchain technology.”
One building block is a new academic journal called “Cryptoeconomic Systems”.
On Twitter, Benedict Evans shared a number of detailed slides from a presentation describing the situation in China. There is no central app store from Google, instead, there are numerous sites (“100 that matter and 20 that really matter”) – and they all compete with each other. The result is a constant fight over the attention of users and updates. The set-up sounds amazingly complex.
The slides became accessible as evidence in the recent trial of Apple vs. Epic over complaints that the 30% commission is too high.
What happens when there are competing smartphone app stores? China is a case study. 700m+ Androids without Google services. Result: complexity… and higher commissions.
Violence in Israel and Palestine: What was the role of extremists on WhatsApp?
A report from the New York Times says that extremists groups formed on WhatsApp organized mob violence.
”Extremists have formed more than 100 new groups on the Facebook-owned messaging app in recent days, according to the Times report, and they are using them to target attacks on Palestinians. This behaviour is difficult for the company to track because messages in WhatsApp are encrypted, so even Facebook can’t access the data in them.”
A case study in consumer trust: How WhatsApp blundered communicating new privacy settings
WhatsApp had announced changes to the privacy settings. What users understood was this: Either you consent to these changes or you have to stop using WhatsApp. Many decided that this update was a good time to do the latter. Downloads of competing services such as Signal grew to record numbers. The link below opens an analysis of the user privacy update debacle. To a large part is was bad communication.
Digital money must one day be “smarter” than traditional money, says Yao Qian, a Chinese expert
”The former head of the digital currency initiative at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are set to become more “smart” and could one day operate on blockchain networks like Ethereum. Yao Qian, now director of the Science and Technology Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said over the weekend that CBDCs shouldn’t attempt to be just a digital form of physical cash, but should incorporate smart contract functionality, Sina Finance reported Monday. Smart contracts are automatically executing pieces of blockchain code that carry out functions when certain conditions are met, and can also be designed to complement or replace legal contracts.”
Financial service companies push US government for Crypto ETFs while CEOs advise consumers to be careful
When is the right time to allow broad investing into crypto assets? The current opinions about this are quite divided:
On one side: In the US big financial companies are trying to push the government to allow the launch of ETFs (exchange-traded funds) specifically to invest in bitcoin. Investors could both win and lose their money, but with a higher unpredictability than in traditional stocks and assets.
On the other side, leading executives are advising traditional investors to “stay away” from these investments.
”Despite the growing industry enthusiasm, Wall Street is also split on the future of cryptocurrency. Some executives are dismissing the push to expand access even as their firms try to satisfy customer demand. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in House testimony Thursday that his company — the nation’s largest bank — was debating how to make it available in a safe way. But Dimon’s personal advice? “Stay away from it.” (Source: Politico)
How enabling anonymous payments contributed to the rise of ransomware attacks
This is a classic example of how a positive intent can turn into a negative outcome. Because it is possible to receive crypto funds anonymously, we are seeing a rise in ransomware attacks.
The IT of any organisation can be intruded and owners can be blocked this way. The hackers are using encryption of files and software. Only the payment of ransom enables g access again. Many victims just pay. Not being able to use the computer network effectively stops the entire organisation from being able to work. This has recently affected hospitals, infrastructure companies and – as experienced recently- a major fuel pipeline in the US.
A podcast on Coindesk asks: How is this feature of crypto money related to the rise of such attacks? What could be done about this? LINK
Thank You for reading.
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TruBlo has finalized the selection of winners from open call #1. Winners are contacted directly.
Due to this selection process the TruBlo 2nd open call will be started not during May, but in early June 2021. Details will be communicated via our website and in this newsletter.
Updates this week:
TRUST
How timestamps enable trustable content
WordProof, a startup from Amsterdam, suggests using timestamps for content. This could solve a number of challenges. Content origin and ownership could be verified. Search engines could use timestamps to determine trustable content, this could be a big change in the future. This month WordProof announced the first partnership with a (small) search engine. Longer article with more background on TruBlo.eu: LINK
Plus: An interview with WordProof founder and CEO Sebastiaan van der Lans LINK
Conspiracy theories: How to better understand the rise of “divided realities”
Do you find it hard to understand why people start to believe in conspiracy theories and how this happens?
How could so many people believe things that are obviously untrue? Why don’t kids learn about this in school? Shouldn’t being able to navigate information and separate truth from lies be a standard part of education?
How national and regional governments try to extend control of social networks
This week officials in several countries and states moved forward to control content published on social networks.
The actions are not directly related. The direction is the same: Authorities want to control.
In Florida Governor DeSantis (Republican) has signed a bill regulating social media companies. In the future, it would be forbidden to ban a political candidate from the platforms. The bill is described as a move against “censorship by tech elites”. LINK
In Russia, authorities told Google that banned content must be deleted from search records in 24 hours. Before Twitter was notified with similar demands. Should the companies not comply, Russia will slow down traffic from those sites and impose fines. LINK
In India, authorities visited two Twitter offices, because of labels classifying some tweets sent out by the ruling party as “manipulated media”. Link
Inside the nasty battle between journalists and Silicon Valley
There is a widening rift between (some) representatives of big tech and journalists. LINK
How journalists can avoid amplifying misinformation in their stories
When journalists point to false claims this might on some occasions do more harm than good. Re-using the content, like a screenshot or a link, could result in even more reach and damage.
To avoid these journalists should use clear labels, such as a visual overlay or other marks so that even the most casual reader does not mistake what is criticized as valid and true. Via Nieman Lab. LINK
How Netflix creates your personal top 10 list
Netflix looks different to different users. The recommended content differs based on the individual viewing habits. But what data goes into those recommendations? LINK
Apple claims to have stopped 1,5bn of potentially fraudulent activities in the App Store in 2020
Apple is currently in a trial brought forward by games company Epic. The core disagreement is whether Apple should be allowed to charge 30% of subscription revenue from any other company which wants to install an app on any iPhone.
Companies like Epic argue that the dominant market position of Apple hinders competition. Apple, in return, argues that the infrastructure provided is difficult to maintain and that there is much work to keep the platform clean from malicious content.
The numbers, published by Apple in a press release, are notable – because they are very high:
Reface is the name of an app enabling “face swaps”. For example, a photo of your face can be projected on the Mona Lisa, even with realistic face movement. The idea is that this is fun.
Another view: This is problematic, because of many options to create fakes and violate content ownership of others. One thing is sure: It is getting harder and harder to tell reality from fiction. Reface shows mainly shows what is possible, at this moment. LINK
BLOCKCHAIN
Rollercoaster: Cryptocurrencies are taking us for a wild ride
Only 45 days ago Tesla announced it would accept Bitcoin as payment. Roughly six weeks later Elon Musk reconsidered and reversed this offer.
Summary here:
“The Technoking of Tesla, Elon Musk has taken an u-turn on Bitcoin after months of hyping it up. Earlier this year, Musk’s Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and even announced that it would be accepting Bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin peaked following this news. Musk became a messiah for the crypto community. His tweets moved markets in an unprecedented way and stumped the market gurus. But, Bitcoin is not without flaws. Mining BTC is considered to be worse for the environment, which collides with most of Musk’s zero-emission aspirations (think: Tesla, Solar City). On Thursday, Musk tweeted that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment citing environmental issues.“ LINK
Report says: Traditional banking and gold mining use double the amount of energy of cryptocurrencies
According to estimates in a study, traditional banking and mining for gold are using more than double the of Bitcoin mining.
“Galaxy Digital compared the Bitcoin network’s energy consumption with that of the banking system as well as the gold industry since the largest cryptocurrency is often compared with the two. The report found that banking and gold consume around 263.72 TWh per year and 240.61 TWh per year, respectively, while Bitcoin consumes much less energy — 113.89 TWh per year.”
There is more to this, of course. Some cryptocurrencies are using high amounts of energy, though the criticism might result in new approaches, which are less energy demanding. LINK
How a digital Yuan would change banking
China is experimenting with a digital currency. It will be called eCNY or “digital yuan”. Because of the size of the Chinese economy, any changes there would have effects everywhere. Consultancy Oliver Wyman expects that the introduction of digital, programmable money would “level the playing field between banks and big tech.”
Digital money could be a way to overcome current barriers, specifically for transactions across country borders. In the long run, moving money could be simpler, faster and cheaper. LINK
Adding timestamps to digital content is the core idea of WordProof. We asked questions to the founder and CEO to better understand the motivation and the goals of the company.
TruBlo: Welcome and thanks for taking the time for this interview. Before we go further – what is your background?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “I work full-time in open source software since 2006. I founded one of the first WordPress agencies in the Netherlands. That agency today is really an open-source company, a team of 25 is working there. We did a lot of stuff for publishers, we built an open-source plug-in to be GDPR-compliant, which runs on over 200,000 websites today.”
“Open-source technology is able of doing so much more than ‘just’ publishing.”
When did you start working with blockchain and the concept of timestamps?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: Since 2013 I learned about Bitcoin, in 2014 I programmed my first smart contract. In 2018 I thought, OK, open-source technology is able of doing so much more than ‘just’ publishing. We need to build a better world through technology. I believe that to save the world, we need to fix the internet. And the key is: We can really bring trust to the internet through blockchain technology. The internet was built to connect computers to computers. But computers are just technology. What if we can make computers enable better human-to-human communication, similar to how we have communication in the real world? So trust must become part of the DNA of the internet. What is trust? Trust is the sum, in our eyes, of transparency and accountability. With blockchain timestamps, you can achieve exactly that, in an open source way, for the first time in history.
So, in 2018 I decided to work full-time on what we then called WordProof. We made a proof of concept and launched the idea at the largest WordPress conference in the world. That was Wordcamp Europe 2019.
What was the reaction there? Did people understand the concept?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “It was a standing ovation. It was really cool. You can watch the keynote, it is available as a video. “
For the TruBlo website, we are using WordPress as well. It is great to have a CMS enabling to publish on the internet. But this leads to one issue for many creative people, like writers, photographers. You can upload any photo, and then it is up to the creator to pursue his rights. Why is there no way of getting paid for valuable work?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “Timestamps offer an open source way to prove that you were the first one to publish certain information. There is a video we made for our academy, showing how this can help you to protect your content.”
Ok, yes, that is helpful. Though, why is it so difficult to find a good compensation model for creative people (photographers, video makers, writers) who help to create all the content for the web?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “I understand what you say there. A good example is the GDPR plug-in we made, as an agency. We had the great wish to do something for the open-source community. I always start my conversations like this: Who loves GDPR? Everybody starts to laugh then usually. Because nobody loves GDPR. But I find GDPR wonderful. It is true: The execution was not beautiful, but the intention is great. We want to have a better internet for the citizens of Europe. So we thought: OK, nobody wants to pay to become GDPR-compliant. Let’s make it for free. Let’s make it an open-source plug-in, as opposed to a paid plug-in. We did that and by now had over two million downloads and more than 200K active installations. As an agency, we had bigger problems when we launched this. What was the problem? We were not able to find good enough developers. As there is such big competition on the market. I invested around 100,000 Euros from our company money to create a good, free GDPR plug-in. As a result, it was really for us to get great developers, as people love to work on open-source projects. And in addition, sales became easier. Because in every sales conversation the question was: How do you work with GDPR? We said: We have a plug-in running on 200,000 websites. It makes sales easier. So the direct business model of open source is totally terrible, but the indirect benefits are huge. There is a business case for open source as well.”
“… logical next step is a trusted web where all information that matters is transparent. It’s just a successor of today’s web.”
Why is there a need for a future, trusted web?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “First there was the unregulated internet. Then there was GDPR, as it was a logical next step to protect the data of the citizens. And a logical next step after that is a trusted web where all information that matters is transparent. It’s just a successor of today’s web. A trusted web-based on timestamps is a logical next step after GDPR, this is how this is what we are showing to policymakers, not only in Europe but around the world.”
How can timestamps enable more trust in content?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “There are lots of use cases regarding the protection of content. But that is not the only thing. For example, one of my favourite use cases is to use timestamps for search engines. If you have a small website and a large website, both publishing news at the same time – then often Google things that the large site was first, simply because they crawl the large sites more often. So, as a result, the large site ranks higher for the same news. In Google News, for example, 60 to 70 per cent of all information and all traffic goes to the first one who publishes something. But the small publisher does not get the chance to rank high in the Google Index. So what we work on together with people at Yoast is lots of standardisation to ensure that a search engine can verify who was the first to have published specific information. As a result, being a small publisher matters again. Because you can proof that you were first in an open source way. That is mind-blowing to me.”
How did you then get started with WordProof then?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “I made the prototype of WordProof myself. I am not a great developer, but I am a good enough developer. I am good at ideation. I thought: I need to make a prototype to show that it is possible what I want. And by the end of 2018 I found out: Ok, it is possible to make a smart contract and combine it with time-stamping. We then started to build a team. For the first half of 2019, we presented at the largest WordPress conference. This is how Wordproof as a company kickstarted. By the end of 2019, we onboarded a news title of the biggest Dutch publisher, the Pers Group. A few months back we added NRC, which is the biggest how-brow media company in the Netherlands. That’s how it got started since 2018.”
“Today, 2 out of 3 large publishers in the Netherlands are using WordProof”
So, from early on you found some customers for the solution in your country?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: Yes. I think the home market is super important. This is why we invested quite some time to educate potential clients about our solution. Today, 2 out of 3 large publishers in the Netherlands are using WordProof: NRC and DPG Media.
How did you get funding for your idea?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: We did a few things. One of them is as an agency. When I created the prototype we decided: OK, we will invest as an agency one full year of my time to develop this idea. In addition, that is good advice for everyone wanting to get started on an idea: Some blockchains offer money for proposal work. So, we got 20,000 US-Dollar from a “Work on proposal” fund in the Blockchain space.
Can you talk about that specific funding option a bit more? And what the next funding step then?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: Yes, in a lot of Blockchain communities there are ways to get *some* funding, a few thousand Euros, a few hundred – simply to get you started. It’s my firm belief that as a founder you always need to be able to program at least the prototype. Otherwise, you are totally dependent on other people and that’s not going to work. Then we found a kind of angel investor.
So it’s not just a technology thing, it is not just a media thing, it is not just a politics thing or economy thing. It’s a total sum of all. So I onboarded someone who is the total opposite of me. Frank is his name, and he helped us with an initial investment. It’s great to have him on board, he is a former politician, so we have political thinking in the company.
“175 applications 23 finalists, 40 countries. And we got the highest possible rank there: 29,5 out of 30 points.”
Then we participated in a competition by the European Commission, organised by NGI – the “blockchains for social good”-competition. This was super-cool: 175 applications 23 finalists, 40 countries. And we got the highest possible rank there: 29,5 out of 30 points. We joined the competition with the idea – OK, we were not sure, if we would win. But at least we had our plans on paper after that competition. We did not work with an outside team or an agency on that. We decided to write entirely by ourselves. With our team we invested 500 to 600 hours to write a proposal from A-Z, not leaving any stone unturned. That paid off. Firstly because this helped to structure our thoughts and get the whole company on paper. Secondly, because we won the prize. And finally, the recognition was superb. The funny thing was: There was no category for what we were doing. There were categories for ideas in the areas of logistics, banking, and so on – there were five categories, but they designed a new category for us, after our application which they called “quality content”. Content as a category was initially not planned when they designed the competition. That is the shift we see now, from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe. It is a lot more towards content. H2020 was about data and privacy, and now it is shifting towards trust.”
Why did the idea for WordProof not come out of Silicon Valley, but out of Europe?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: Because we as Europeans care about a better internet. This is why in 2012 we came up with the idea of GDPR, to protect the rights of our citizens, to make the internet a better place. We as Europeans deeply care about that.
How big is the team you are working with right now?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “Our team has about eight full-time people now. And, while I don’t know for sure, in a year from now the team size could easily be doubled.”
What are you offering to small and large users?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “I think the ability to proof your integrity should not be a luxury, it is a human right. There will always be a free plan and also a paid plan. Today almost 1000 sites are using WordProof. Some publishers do over 10,000 articles a month, they use our paid service to make sure that we organise all the stuff in the background for them. The verification of a timestamp is always, from A to Z, a fully open-source process. So there is no trust in WordProof needed. So, we have two organizations: WordProof, the time-stamps company and The Trusted Web Foundation, where I am a chairman. We provide a huge amount of educational information about timestamps through The Trusted Web foundation.”
“Any information can be published on the internet, but before information can go viral, it must have a certain level of accountability, which is a step in the right direction for solving misinformation and fake news.”
What was the biggest barrier to overcome for more trustable content?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: It is a hard question and an easy question at the same time. For example, The biggest benefit is for the end-user. But the one who needs to integrate the time-stamp and who needs to pay for it is the publisher. So, it is hard to align all stakeholders. That’s why we work together with search engines and social media platforms. This is very important. First, we educate search engines and social media companies that they should attribute value to timestamps. The more transparency you show, the higher you rank. The more accountability you take as a sender of information the higher they rank you. Any information can be published on the internet, but before information can go viral, it must have a certain level of accountability, which is a step in the right direction for solving misinformation and fake news. Our opinion is that there should always be freedom of speech, but not automatically and necessarily freedom of reach. There is a lot at stake there, there is a lot of education to be done for publishers, policymakers and search engines and social media. But that is why we founded The Trusted Web Foundation. There is a whole page about a variety of topics on the website of The Trusted Web.”
When do you expect media organisations to start using this technology?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “There are three or even four use cases where timestamps make sense for media companies. Structured data helps search engines. Timestamps are published as structured data. For example: To reduce search engine fraud by false dates (by simply updating the content to a more recent date). Levelling the playing field through timestamps: The example would be when a small and a big publisher publish similar content. With the timestamp, the smaller site can show when the content was published to the search engine. There are three or four major issues that could be solved by time-stamps.”
“As of early 2021 we are at a number of about three million time-stamps for articles. Over the coming months, this will go up to 10 million and later 100 million.”
How has the usage of timestamps evolved since WordProof started?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “As of early 2021 we are at a number of about three million time-stamps for articles. Over the coming months, this will go up to 10 million and later 100 million. From that moment search engines can not ignore this data as an element of ranking. We are to announce that a first engine will support this format. It is a small engine, but it is an important step. “
Do you think this is an opportunity for the EU? Do you get enough support for your idea, do you find open doors?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “We are part of a lot of round tables by the European Commission initiatives. Standardisation is key. The ISO workgroups we are part of. There are several “future of media initiatives” we are part of. Together with the publisher organisation WAN-IFRA, we are members there. I was a keynote speaker there two weeks ago. We are actively involved in media and blockchain roundtables, too.”
Why did no one think of time-stamps so far?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: “The technology of blockchain is rapidly evolving. Blockchain was invented 30 years ago, in 1991 for proofing the integrity of information. So it took quite some time. But blockchains were slow, blockchains were expensive. And the problems were not worth thinking of on the internet. So the technology was not ready, and we were not fully aware of how broken the internet is. During the last decade, we learned how broken it is, especially with COVID-19 we saw it in action. Misinformation literally costs lives. So the timing was right, both from a technology perspective and from a social perspective. Technology was not ready, society was not ready. So the time is right now. “
“WordProof is not a copyright tool”
Are you aware of similar approaches in other regions of the world?
Sebastiaan van der Lans: There are a lot of initiatives to do notarization of documents, to do copyright protection, to do search engine optimisation. WordProof is not a copyright tool, we are not just an SEO tool, we not just an integrity tool. It is a combination of all. Some building blocks. For example, there is a social network, a new one, which is called Voice.com. This new social network is really focused: Everyone there is verified. So it is only about humans. That is very interesting, but the extent of the community is limited. What we aim to do with WordProof is to make trust part of the DNA of the whole internet. And I love how for example NGI and the EU projects are all working on the trust use case. For example, search engine rankings are a result of trust. To what amount do I trust that website and put it higher in the ranks? There is not an initiative working on exactly the same. But there are a lot more organisations with an aligned mission and I like to see all of those.”
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
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