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Actual title: There is “nothing resembling consensus” about whether the online misinformation problem can actually be solved Techmeme summary: Laura Hazard Owe

Actual title: There is “nothing resembling consensus” about whether the online misinformation problem can actually be solved Techmeme summary: Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: Pew survey of 1,116 technologists and other experts: consensus that current environment is conducive to misinfo; 51% say things won't improve over next decade I have a totally uninformed, "stab-in-the-dark" question: aren't blockchain-based technologies a way to get consensus in an environment where you can't trust anyone? i.e. obtain and maintain Byzantine fault tolerance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance

sharemywin 9y ago
check out: https://gnosis.pm https://gnosis.pm you could probably solve it with something like a prediction market.
- tareqak 9y ago
  How feasible would it be to get like news organizations to use that or something like it?
  - sharemywin 9y ago
    The problem is people don't relate to facts. they relate to stories. so, you could use pay to vote type scheme to get at an answer, but it could still get corrupted and people ignore facts all the time.
dozzie 9y ago
> I have a totally uninformed, "stab-in-the-dark" question: aren't blockchain-based technologies a way to get consensus [...]? Yes, totally uninformed. Blockchain is not for establishing consensus, but for timestamping documents.
- tareqak 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_practice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_p... > One example of BFT in use is bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency system. The bitcoin network works in parallel to generate a chain of Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work chain is the key to overcome Byzantine failures and to reach a coherent global view of the system state.
  - dozzie 9y ago
    Well, no, not quite. It's nowhere near "coherent", as in "all people at a designated time have exactly the same view of the global state", as this is what Byzantine generals problem requires. What people in Bitcoin can tell is which one of the two transactions that share at least one account is earlier. Bitcoin doesn't solve Byzantine generals problem, it avoids it.

sharemywin 9y ago

check out: https://gnosis.pm https://gnosis.pm you could probably solve it with something like a prediction market.

tareqak 9y ago
How feasible would it be to get like news organizations to use that or something like it?
- sharemywin 9y ago
  The problem is people don't relate to facts. they relate to stories. so, you could use pay to vote type scheme to get at an answer, but it could still get corrupted and people ignore facts all the time.

dozzie 9y ago

> I have a totally uninformed, "stab-in-the-dark" question: aren't blockchain-based technologies a way to get consensus [...]? Yes, totally uninformed. Blockchain is not for establishing consensus, but for timestamping documents.

tareqak 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_practice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_p... > One example of BFT in use is bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency system. The bitcoin network works in parallel to generate a chain of Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work chain is the key to overcome Byzantine failures and to reach a coherent global view of the system state.
- dozzie 9y ago
  Well, no, not quite. It's nowhere near "coherent", as in "all people at a designated time have exactly the same view of the global state", as this is what Byzantine generals problem requires. What people in Bitcoin can tell is which one of the two transactions that share at least one account is earlier. Bitcoin doesn't solve Byzantine generals problem, it avoids it.