xx network to Power Novel Fact-Checking Start Up
By: Evidently Online
Tags: Blockchain, Social Media, Fake News, Fact Checking, Decentralization

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

— Winston Churchill

Except Winston Churchill never said it. One of the earliest versions of the aphorism is traced to Thomas Swift in 1710: “…Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it…” Others have been (wrongly) attributed to Mark Twain: “A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Misattributions aside, few would dispute the truth of the saying itself, especially now, in the age of social media. But what if there were a way to put the pants (shoes, boots, whatever) on truth faster? Give it wings?

Our new distributed app proposes to do just that, using xx network’s platform features to vastly increase the scale, speed and assurance of fact checking. Using the power of the crowd and “trustless” verification through xx network’s breakthrough technologies, it is possible to reliably decentralize the cost and time intensive job of sharing and weighing evidence. Unlike traditional fact-checking methods, our system has the potential to provide label data as a service at scale for AI applications, and annotate misinformation in near real time on social media platforms.

How it works

Random sample juries assess the merits of claims submitted for adjudication and labelling. Jurors are anonymous to prevent vote tampering. Public sentiment is gathered in the form of stakes, in which community members can back or contest a claim with reputation as well as currency. Evidence is gathered and securely stored on the xx blockchain, where it can’t be altered, and anyone can inspect and comment on it. Stakes are awarded to participants when judgments are issued.

Key differentiating technologies

The xx network — a scalable, quantum secure blockchain integrated with the most private messaging technology in the world. Community reputation and incentives are secured and verified in a decentralized manner while evidence submission, commentary, and other interactions may be unlinkable to any IP or identity.

— a scalable, quantum secure blockchain integrated with the most private messaging technology in the world. Community reputation and incentives are secured and verified in a decentralized manner while evidence submission, commentary, and other interactions may be unlinkable to any IP or identity. VoteXX — a random sample voting technology driven by un-manipulatable, unpredictable randomness generated by the xx network and which is privately verifiable by voters and includes protections against vote buying.

— a random sample voting technology driven by un-manipulatable, unpredictable randomness generated by the xx network and which is privately verifiable by voters and includes protections against vote buying. User credentials — a novel approach to pseudonymous credentials in which a user can prove certain aspects or characteristics of their profile without being linked to a root identity.

The rapid spread of disinformation is a serious threat to social stability around the world as has been underscored by developments in the United States over the last several years. “Elite,” centralized organizations which have traditionally filtered and reported news and facts are widely distrusted in much the same way that centralized financial institutions have been in the cryptosphere. In the same vein, what is needed is a decentralized solution that resists manipulation or bias.

Evidently.online introduces the first technology capable of adjudicating and annotating misinformation across the many facets of the internet as fast as it is generated.