Blockchain news is a growing field that encompasses stories about how the technology is being used by various businesses and industries. It has moved far beyond its cryptocurrency roots, becoming the foundation for new financial products such as stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is also being incorporated into traditional finance, providing increased trust, security and efficiency in areas like supply chain management, digital asset custody services and market operations.
In the news industry, blockchain has been used for verifying stories, enhancing reader engagement and rewarding readers for contributing content. It is also being applied to news distribution and syndication, and is creating new revenue models for news organizations.
The first use of blockchain in the news industry occurred in 2015 when Walmart piloted a food traceability system powered by VeChain, a blockchain company that supports supply chain visibility and transparency. The system tracked shrimp from farms in Andhra Pradesh, India, to select Sam’s Club stores in the United States.
ANSA’s De Alessandri was inspired by this project to seek a solution that would enable his agency to affirm the trustworthiness of its stories. He found it in blockchain verification, a distributed ledger that records data as time-stamped blocks. A cryptographic hash is generated for each block, which makes tampering extremely difficult.
The ANSAcheck system uses blockchain to record all aspects of a news story’s creation and distribution, including when it is posted to an online news site, when it is reposted by other media outlets and which versions were shared on social platforms. This information is securely stored on the blockchain and can be verified by anyone with access to the network. The system is free to use but requires substantial computing power, as each node on the blockchain needs to validate each block.