PUBLIQ, a global non-profit peer-to-peer distributed network that was founded to rebuild trust in media, was selected finalist by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Blockchain for its 2019 showcase of companies solving real-world problems with fully functioning Blockchain technology. Among the ten company and institution finalists, PUBLIQ was the only Blockchain application in the media category.
The UK media landscape has suffered ongoing newsroom retrenchment alongside the magnitude of the spread of fake news. According to a 2018 study by the National Union of Journalists, more than 200 local papers have closed in the UK in just over a decade, leaving 58 percent of the country without a daily or regional news source. In a study examining the UK’s most trusted news sources, only 25 percent of respondents said they totally or tend to trust sites like Facebook and Twitter, with less than half trusting online news and news magazines.
To combat those challenges, PUBLIQ created a global publishing platform that functions on proprietary Blockchain. It provides independent authors a decentralized environment for content publishing to earn money for their work, in addition to peer-reviewing content. PUBLIQ redistributes 100 percent of the advertising revenue to its members, and safeguards identities and IP rights of members, guaranteeing that usage of the content fairly benefits its creator.
“We are grateful to be recognized by APPG Blockchain as it offers the UK pragmatic solutions to challenges across industries, which the media landscape desperately needs,” said Dr. Christian de Vartavan, Advisor & Global Ambassador of PUBLIQ. “Our blockchain publishing platform is empowering journalists to work for fair earnings, without the middlemen, and ultimately provides transparency to the publishing process that hopefully will help deter the spread of fake news.”
APPG Blockchain was established in January 2018 to ensure the UK is a leader in blockchain technology innovation and implementation. The 2019 Showcase competition selected companies that demonstrate real use of Blockchain technology in society to combat business challenges and to show the benefits of its application.