It is an era of constant change and challenges for the local news landscape. One Facebook group is leading the charge by using NFTs in innovative ways to help make this shift. Produced by Dig-A-Hash, What’s Going On Quad Cities (WGONQC) has been investigating how blockchain technology can change the model for community journalism. FearlessToken.com takes a look at how they’re doing it and what it means for the future of local journalism.

WGONQC: NFTs as Building Blocks for News

WGONQC isn't your typical news outlet. Dig-A-Hash have created it through NFTs being used as the basic building blocks. This implies that every piece of news, every paper or every progress report is associated with a single NFT. This method provides a new level of transparency and traceability that is hard to accomplish using traditional methods of publishing.

The crew at Dig-A-Hash, which includes Segura, oversees the production and maintenance of these NFTs. They create new entries, new attributes, to each NFT. These NFT attributes are updated each time as the story progresses. That provides for a flexible, changing and evolving news record, where updates are tracked and readily verifiable.

Storing these NFTs efficiently is crucial. Dig-A-Hash then decides to store them on Polygon, a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution. This cuts almost in half the hosting costs vs. hosting separate Amazon Web service (AWS) databases. Polygon allows for quick transaction speeds and low transaction fees. This makes it the perfect solution for any platform or project looking to custodian millions of NFTs.

Dig-A-Hash: AI and Blockchain Working Together

Dig-A-Hash is committed to leveraging blockchain technology. They are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to supercharge their news verification process. AI is helping them to run deep web searches to fact check every claim, making the process rigorous and the information authoritative and relevant. This innovative use of AI and blockchain is what makes Newsroom a more transparent and credible news platform.

Using AI to independently fact check claims is a huge leap in the ongoing fight against misinformation. AI algorithms have the potential to rapidly sift through large quantities of data from multiple sources, flagging any inconsistencies or red flags. This all combines to allow journalists to focus on uncovering and painting the picture of what’s most true and trustworthy.

The combination of AI and blockchain present powerful new opportunities for the future of journalism to flourish. AI takes the most time-consuming tasks out of the news gathering and verification process. At the same time, blockchain provides a more secure and transparent medium for news publication and distribution.

Technical Implementation and Cost Savings

Their technical implementation centers on three pillars. Here’s their model—step by step First, the team produces different types of NFTs to represent different pieces of news content. These NFTs include metadata, which tells you about the content – title of the work, author, date of creation, and where to find it. This line-level metadata is critical in order to sort, filter and present that news to consumers in a meaningful and user friendly manner.

Not every piece of data is recorded directly on the blockchain. Although the NFTs themselves are created and housed on Polygon, the metadata they link to is stored on Amazon S3. This decision is driven by cost considerations. Storing all the metadata on-chain, or even with third-party services like Arweave, would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This unique hybrid approach leverages the benefits of blockchain technology with the reality of maintaining costs. WGONQC saves metadata as S3 objects and NFT identifiers to the blockchain. This simple, functional approach empowers them to have a verifiable and transparent record of their news content without cost or burden.

Pros and Cons of WGONQC's Approach

WGONQC’s creative model for distributing this kind of news has a lot of potential, but it comes with its own limitations. Grasping these advantages and disadvantages is key to assessing the promise of blockchain within the field of local journalism.

Pros:

  • Transparency: Blockchain technology provides a transparent and immutable record of news content. This can help build trust with readers and combat misinformation.
  • Cost Savings: By using Polygon and storing metadata in S3, WGONQC can significantly reduce hosting costs compared to traditional methods.
  • Innovation: WGONQC is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in local journalism, exploring new ways to engage with audiences and deliver news.
  • AI Integration: The use of AI to verify claims enhances the accuracy and reliability of the news content.

Cons:

  • Immutability Concerns: While immutability is often seen as a benefit of blockchain, it can also be a drawback. Once an NFT is created, it cannot be easily changed or deleted. This could be problematic if errors are discovered in the news content.
  • Scalability Challenges: While Polygon helps with scalability, the overall system may still face challenges as the amount of news content grows.
  • Environmental Impact: Although Polygon is more energy-efficient than some other blockchains, it still has an environmental impact. The energy consumption associated with creating and transacting NFTs is a concern.
  • Security Risks: NFTs are vulnerable to security risks, such as fraud and hacking. WGONQC needs to implement robust security measures to protect its NFTs and metadata.

Analyzing Immutability and Scalability

Immutability is the characteristic that once you write data to a blockchain, it’s there forever. You can make basic edits and deletions, but not without difficulty. While this can be a fantastic feature for protecting the integrity of news content, it creates a unique challenge as well.

If a journalist or researcher identifies an error in a news article, correcting it with record on the blockchain would be very difficult. Or in some instances, early on—inexcusable. Otherwise, this would open the door to politicization of coverage, proliferation of misinformation, or reputational harm to the news organization itself. WGONQC addresses this issue by keeping the article content off-chain. This unique mechanism allows for corrections to be made while still maintaining a clear, immutable record of the article’s history within the NFT itself.

Scalability is another important consideration. Blockchains can be slow and expensive to use with high volume, particularly when working with huge datasets. Polygon partly solves this problem, offering a cheaper and quicker platform to transact NFTs on. The system at large will likely continue to be highly unscalable as the volume of news content continues to expand.

The Future of Blockchain in Local Journalism

WGONQC’s experiment with NFTs and blockchain technology provides one picture of what a sustainable future for local journalism could look like. Blockchain could fundamentally change how news is created, shared and engaged with.

All of this said, it’s worth recognizing the challenges and limitations of blockchain technology. We need to address the regulatory burdens, sustainability challenges, and security concerns. Fulfilling these challenges will be essential to realizing the potential of blockchain in our industry on a broad scale.

  1. Secure Storage and Editing of Metadata: Blockchain can be used to store important metadata that journalists and media companies use daily, ensuring secure storage and editing.
  2. Decentralized and Community-Driven Journalism: Blockchain-based platforms can create a network of news organizations, journalists, and investors, promoting decentralized and community-driven journalism.
  3. Enhanced Credibility and Trust: Blockchain-based solutions can track the credibility of news, providing a transparent and verifiable record of a story's origin and evolution.
  4. New Business Models and Revenue Streams: Blockchain technology can enable new business models and revenue streams for local journalism, such as decentralized advertising and sponsored content.

In spite of these hurdles, WGONQC’s efforts show that blockchain has the power to transform local journalism. By embracing innovation and exploring new technologies, local news organizations can build trust with their audiences, combat misinformation, and create sustainable business models.

FearlessToken .com will be here as these developments unfold, as these fearless minds creating the pioneer culture of the next frontier continue to blossom.

FearlessToken.com will continue to track these developments as the fearless minds shaping the next cultural frontier continue to emerge.