Yet another war has broken out in the Middle East - this time between Israel and Iran. Markets, the economy, and global security are all affected, so many of us want to stay up-to-date on with what's happening in the region.
Unfortunately, it's hard to trust what we see in the news these days.
Most of the boomers are still getting their news from the mainstream media, whether that be from cable TV or a newspaper. Meanwhile the younger generations have been getting information more and more from social media platforms like X.
Mainstream News
Trust in the mainstream media is at all-time lows, especially since the plandemic and the vaxx ruined countless lives.
While many of us grew up trusting sources like CNN, Fox, and Reuters, we have since learned that they are indeed "fake news", used more to indoctrinate the population than to inform them.
When it comes to the war, these news organizations supposedly hear from "officials" in Iran and then report their statements back to us. The question is, who are these officials, and why should we trust the information being relayed to us?
News Via Social Media
Many of us have since turned to social media platforms like X to get more up-to-date information. While the information on X is indeed more recent than that of traditional news, it comes from dubious sources as well.
There are pro-Iranian accounts that post to X, claiming that a counter-attack or a "surprise" is coming soon, but we do not know who is actually behind these accounts. How can we verify that these statements are actually coming from a legitimate member of the Iranian government?
We also see posts on X claiming that Iran or "a senior Iranian official" has agreed to a ceasefire with the United States and Israel, only to see more bombing of Tehran and Tel Aviv hours later.
News Via Trustless Blockchains
Blockchain technology can be used for more than just transferring tokens in a peer-to-peer fashion. These decentralized networks can also be used to verify that written statements and recorded media are indeed authentic, and come from their original source.
For example, Satoshi Nakamoto could write a message, include it in a transaction, broadcast it to the Bitcoin blockchain, and we would know for certain the contents originated from him (so long as no one had stolen his private key).
People build their reputations on blockchains over time.
For example, here on Hive some of us have been writing content for many years, always using the same private key, slowly building a reputation over time. A new account on the network claiming to be an existing user would be easily be flagged as a fraud.
Decentralized blockchains can also be used to verify the original source of a photograph or a video. For example, using Ethereum's layer-2 zkSync, Nodle Network and an app called Click create verifiable records of a media’s origin and authenticity.
Imagine if statements coming from key leaders in war were signed with their private key, and broadcast to a decentralized network. What if photos and videos from the battleground had both their timestamp and source verified? Misinformation would be almost entirely eliminated.
Until next time...
Like any new technology, it will take time for the world population to adapt to it. But when getting statements out to the community is critical, decentralized blockchains may become the only trusted mode of communication in the future.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.