Forbes is Set to Integrate Blockchain Technology via Its New Partnership

October 10, 2018

5 min read

Yesterday, American publisher Forbes revealed it has teamed up with Ethereum-based platform Civil to test some new blockchain-powered features in terms of publishing.

Forbes is now partner with Civil, a blockchain-based platform dedicated to support, distribute, and protect the journalistic space.

On its main page, Civil characterizes itself as a “diverse marketplace for local, international, investigative and policy journalism,” while on the “about page” it describes as a”decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism.” These are quite intriguing, but let’s have an in-depth analysis of what is Civil according to its whitepaper:

Civil is a “decentralized communications protocol for journalists and citizens, launched by The Civil Media Company.”
“The protocol limits the need for (and influence of) third parties like advertisers and centralized publisher conglomerates.”
“Civil’s cryptoeconomic model seeks to enable a more direct, transparent relationship between journalists and citizens, while using blockchain to also strengthen protections for journalists against censorship and intellectual property violations.”
“Activity on the Civil protocol will be mediated through the Ethereum blockchain and a community of consumers, content creators, fact checkers and publishers, who work together to decide which newsrooms to organize and the types of content published on the network.”
“In order to achieve Civil’s decentralized goal, activity on the platform will be managed by an Ethereum blockchain-based token, CVL.”
“Journalists, or “newsmakers” as they’re known on Civil, will own and operate independent publications (“Newsrooms”) while retaining full autonomy over all editorial and business decisions.”
“Newsrooms primarily seek compensation directly from the citizens they serve and possess full control of their revenue model…”
“… citizens will be able to choose to compensate newsmakers in any currency, including fiat using traditional credit card processors as well as cryptocurrency (even CVL!) via web wallets.”
“To establish a high bar for quality content and discourse, all participants in the marketplace agree to abide by the Civil Constitution, a self-governed statement of purpose, values and code of conduct in keeping with our mission to power sustainable journalism throughout the world.”
“The Ethereum blockchain plays a foundational role in Civil’s model: it enables the creation of a custom token, CVL, which is based on the ERC20 protocol.”
“The Civil Registry is a self-governing, token-curated whitelist of newsrooms that have been approved to publish content on Civil’s platform. To access the Civil Registry, a prospective Newsroom must submit a journalistic mission, a newsroom roster, sign the Civil Constitution and stake CVL tokens to state the seriousness of their intent.”

The Ethereum-based platform Civil is committed to introduce Forbes with blockchain technology and its features and share how this can help the American publisher “increase trust with audiences”. Furthermore, the collaboration “allows Forbes to assess emerging opportunities that can potentially unlock new forms of audience engagement and drive additional revenue streams.”

Salah Zalatimo, Senior VP of Product & Technology at Forbes claimed:

“We are relentlessly focused on rapid experimentation and implementation so that we can determine what’s in the best interest of our audience and what is next for our industry. Forbes and Civil believe passionately in the mission of journalism, and together we can provide audiences with a level of unprecedented transparency around our content. We’ll also be able to expand the reach of our writers and identify new revenue channels over time.”

Matthew Iles, the Chief Executive Officer of The Civil Media Company shared his vision too:

“Civil’s mission is to power sustainable journalism throughout the world, and Forbes’ commitment to regularly publish content on our platform is a major milestone for our approach. We look forward to working with Forbes as we connect with a broader audience interested in new, more direct ways to discover, share and support ethical journalism.”

According to the partnership agreement with the crypto-based platform, Forbes is committed to publishing metadata from ‘select articles’ linked to the Ethereum network through Civil in Q1 next year. If the process is successful, Forbes may be allowed to publish the metadata for all kind of its articles.
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