Decentralized News Network

Decentralized News Network Abstract

A decentralized news network backed by incentives for individuals to create, review, and consume news. The primary innovation of blockchains is a verifiable and cryptographically secured global ledger that can lead to new types of incentive structures. Developers can take advantage of the Ethereum blockchain to build applications that are not only architecturally and politically decentralized, but are underpinned by tokens of value. We propose a network in which writers produce news content that is reviewed by fact-checkers before being published on the network without the risk of being taken down. All parties involved in publishing a factual article will be rewarded with tokens in a self-sustaining environment that thrives on tangible activity and accuracy of content rather than on advertising revenue and corporate interests.

Why is a need for DNN?

• Heavy corporate consolidation in media & public lack of trust
• Fake News
• Growing Censorship 

How does DNN address Fake News?

• DNN sees itself as an additional transparent layer to vet the reputation and underlying agenda of sources- which is severely lacking in today's media. The rationale behind DNN is to leverage selfish gains by structuring the review system in a way to incentivize fact-seeking and disincentive biases.
• DNN relies on consensus amongst content reviewers, rather than a central authority, to determine what should be published.
• An extensive review process allows for fact-checkers to validate writer-submitted content for overall accuracy and legitimacy.
• DNN's guidelines and content policies direct reviewers on how to approve articles before they get published to the network.
• DNN is not tethered to any special interests or political agendas, nor is it vying for a substantial chunk of ad revenue, which puts it in a category separate from most publications that are tied down to a bigger entity.

How does DNN address Censorship?

• Content published to DNN is stored on the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring immunity from any efforts to suppress writer content.
• DNN's content is persisted across community-managed servers, so that each retains copies of everything published to the network.
• Since the blockchain contains data in time-stamped blocks that chain together, being continuously added and archived, it becomes nearly impossible for outsiders to manipulate existing data or information within the distributed ledger.
• Each new user that contributes to a blockchain by hosting a miner or a node, helps to secure the data within it by making the amount of resources needed hack it extremely high. This makes it infeasible for any individual or organization to censor any content(s) within.
• In DNN's case, publishers can run nodes that host and deliver the news content which users access in a peer-to-peer environment. Even if a government manages to shut down all nodes in its jurisdiction, those users can simply access DNN by switching to nodes elsewhere. 

Why DNN will work?

• If news distribution were to function without any central authority, less importance would reside on media titans and there would exist a higher degree of autonomy and independence from the bottom-up, starting with journalists and ending at readers. This is what DNN is enabling.
• Readers crave one simple thing that DNN is providing: transparency. Transparency in news can make way for a more democratic and freer thinking press, which is sorely needed in these current times. 

What are the Benefits?

• News Readers
  Readers get access to more accurate and transparent news content that mainstream media won't give them. 
  They also earn a reward for flagging articles for further inaccuracies and suggesting topics for writers to cover. 
• Journalists/Content Creators 
  Journalists get to be in full control of what they write about, not being tethered any overlying political agendas. They have full freedom for their voices to be heard and never suppressed by a bigger entity.
  Writing about warzones is a good example of a sensitive topic that risks being removed or tampered with by other networks. But since DNN isn't architecturally or politically centralized, this content will always be seen and preserved on the network. 
  They can earn reward for getting articles successfully published. 
• General Public
  In general, everyone would access to more factual information, but even more importantly, they'll all be exposed to a higher degree of media literacy in an environment that encourages an open dialogue on important issues. 
  The general public can also choose to directly take part in DNN whenever they choose. There is nothing stopping anyone from contributing positively to the network and taking ownership of it with all the other participants. 
• Media Outlets 
  Fact-checking external articles through DNN can potentially reduce internal costs, since an organization can simply offload the task to DNN without relying on additional staff or other organizations. A 2015 experimental study found that fact-checking can encourage politicians to not spread misinformation. The study found that it might help improve political discourse by increasing the reputational costs or risks of spreading misinformation for political elites. This would only serve to aid bigger organizations in their efforts to distribute honest news and reduce operational costs.

How does the system work?

• Simply put, writers produce and submit content, which is inspected for accuracy by a randomized set of reviewers on the network. Articles deemed acceptable enough (as per DNN’s guidelines) will be published to the network and made available to readers. These parties, in turn, can all earn token rewards for their respective efforts on the platform.
• Writers earn tokens for getting article published according to DNN’s editorial guidelines.
• Reviewers must stake tokens to be approved to review articles. They review articles anonymously and keep  DNN’s editorial guidelines in mind while doing so. Reviewers can earn or lose tokens depending on the collective publishing outcome.
• Publishers earn tokens for storing published articles and hosting the DNN platform. They vote on the token pricing of all DNN actions (e.g. writer fee for submitting articles, minimum reviewer stake, token reward rate etc).
  Readers can earn tokens for pointing out inaccuracies or violations of DNN’s editorial guidelines. They can also suggest topics to writers as bounties to earn tokens. Readers play a pivotal role in ensuring that the DNN article feed remains factual.
• In DNN’s case, tokens serve two purposes: they are used as a reward for various actions (e.g. getting an article accepted, reviewing an article etc.) and to carry out actions that write new data to the chain. For example, writers use DNN tokens to pay for the Writer Fee associated with submitting their article to the network. Once an article has been accepted, writers can earn DNN tokens through the engagement generated by their article. Reviewers use DNN tokens to to be considered by the network as a reviewer of a submitted article. Lastly, readers use DNN tokens to interact with articles in the form of viewing, commenting, and tipping writers.When it comes to holding tokens, people hold them for a variety of reasons: some do it to sell them later, while some will hold in order gain more reputation or a higher standing within a decentralized platform.
• In DNN's case, holding tokens is something we incentivize publishers to do- they are the equivalent of miners that hold the contents of published articles. The more tokens a DNN publisher holds, the more they are entitled to DNN tokens when they become available through the collective actions of the platform. In the case of other users, the more tokens they hold in the long run, the higher the value can appreciate based on network activity increasing over time.

Why buy DNN tokens?

• DNN already has a working alpha and a clear roadmap/vision to get the product to Mainnet. Once that happens, the tokens (which have legally already been deemed a utility), will have an actual use case. This will serve to drive up the platform's overall valuation, thus making the tokens more valuable.
• Buying tokens will give early access to DNN's beta platform, which will begin development post-sale.
• Buying tokens during the public sale will enable contributors to also receive fairly substantial bonuses, as outlined below.