The Scoop
A new startup wants to use blockchain technology to provide media organizations with a new tool to combat disinformation.
This week, Now Media is launching Sovereignty, a technology platform to provide digital media organizations with verification tools that would help them authenticate their digital content with blockchain tech.
In a conversation with Semafor, founders Matt Medved and Alejandro Navia said Sovereignty will leverage Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 technology to authenticate content on the blockchain. They say this would allow users to see a clear and unalterable record of a piece of content’s creation and any edits made to it.
“In the age of AI and disinformation, it’s become harder and harder to know who wrote and created what,” Medved said of the product on a Zoom call.
The duo said they have had productive conversations with publishers explaining how the technology works. Now Media hopes publishers will allow Sovereignty to be integrated into their content management systems, creating a unique signature every time a piece of content is published. This could help audience members understand the original source material, and decide for themselves whether the publisher is trustworthy and reliable.
Now Media’s founders said it was important to launch this year with the U.S. presidential election on the horizon, noting that advances in artificial intelligence will allow for the proliferation of increasingly realistic-seeming fake media.
“AI will never get less sophisticated than right now,” Navia said. “That has its benefits, but it’s an increasingly dangerous tool in the hands of bad actors.”
