Smart Publishing: The Blockchain Way!

Saurabh Sugandh, 2 Mar 2020

Internet of things (IoT) can be referred to a number of interconnected things. We are now part of a vicious web that spins all across the globe. Today, IoT is as dumb as Internet. It needs people and their data for its sustainability. Engineers are fueled by corporations to weave an interwoven web of data that connects everyone to everything. Some of us have accepted it wholeheartedly but some are still concerned. Without being concerned about the privacy and security, we are still seeing an avalanche of newer and better technologies coming up and joining hands with IoT. In this digital era, almost everything speaks to each other, no matter how you set your privacy levels. The most recent technology that hit IoT is blockchain and I refer precisely to a Smart Contract.

In my previous article (IoT: A- contract that will outsmart you), I explained about a smart contract and how it can be used to solve today’s business needs. Publishing and media industry constantly fights with copyright issues. We see someone’s article, music, video, or any artistic creation being duplicated and conveyed in different digital forms and do nothing about it. No matter how it comes, everyone is waiting to grab a free content on web. For those who look for some sort of redemption, smart publishing (based on smart contract/blockchain) can become a viable solution.

Developers, testers, and technical writers would know how Github solves our basic needs of version control. Smart contract is an extension of that. The difference being that there cannot be a merge conflict because no one is holding up any information. To an extent, you can mine a block (similar to creating a branch), commit your changes, and push it to join the rest of the blockchain (Github’s branch). Validation of that block will merge it to the blockchain (similar to a Pull request without merge conflicts). And because the blockchain cannot be owned by a single entity, the miner (contributor) of that piece of block can always hope for his/her royalty. I know it’s a bit technical but I think I found the most easy and apt way to explain.

People have already gathered and designed systems on blockchain to secure web content and its copyrights issue. If you are already a content creator, Po.et is doing its bit to help you. It allows you to add your content to the blockchain independent of where you are publishing. The latest that I’m aware of is that if you have a wordpress blog, you can install its plugin and let your content be a part of the blockchain. The second biggest issue that content creators face is signing up for unnecessary advertisements. People often fall prey to Google Adwords/Adsense and let their content suffer from vague advertisements floating all around and still not get fully paid. To rescue, Amino Pay has a better solution in place that lets its blockchain technology to be transparent and accessible.

If you are not ready for all these different technology players, you can always opt for Publica. It’s an open platform that lets you do everything at one place.

And if you are looking to start somewhere fresh into this exciting new technology, I would suggest that you look into Steemit and Graphite Docs.