Everipedia, a crypto-related information portal that was “forked” from Wikipedia in 2017, has decided to use blockchain-based geospatial technology
The distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solution will be provided by XYO, a company focused on creating blockchain-enabled geospatial software. Everipedia will reportedly use the geospatial program to determine the validity of point-of-interest information on the online encyclopedia.
Everipedia, which contains all the articles published on Wikipedia (at the time of the fork), has implemented an incentive system for content creators on its decentralized platform. The compensation system involves rewarding content publishers with an EOS token called the IQ cryptocurrency. Backed by Dr. Larry Sanger (the co-founder of WIkipedia), the Everipedia platform will incorporate XYO’s geospatial software in order to obtain accurate data location.
Determining Primary And Secondary Sources
XYO’s software will reportedly support an initiative that involves Everipedia users proving the value of their knowledge. Initially, Everipedia’s management plans to use XYO’s technology to find point of interest, or knowledge that readers may find relevant. Markus Levin, the co-founder and head of operations at XYO, told CCN:
We enable users to prove their knowledge. Let’s say you’re writing about the Statue of Liberty and you’re in India. You’ve never been to the Statue of Liberty. Your knowledge is second-source. It has a different qualifier than if you’re a professor of history and you’ve been to the Statue of Liberty many times. You’re a primary source.
Meanwhile, Theodor Forselius, the co-founder of the Everipedia project, said:
Everipedia looked at the rest of the Internet. We realized that all other aspects of the internet like search engines, e-commerce, social networks, have evolved over the past two decades. There’s been a bunch of competition driving innovation forward.
However, Forselius believes online encyclopedias appear to be lagging behind other internet-based platforms and services as there has “just been Wikipedia and nothing else” – as far as information sources are concerned. Realizing that there’s currently “a huge vacuum of opportunity”, Forselius and Everipedia’s other founding members have been working to develop a better online encyclopedia.
2 Million Monthly Visitors, 1 Million Published Articles
Currently, the Everipedia website attracts around 2 million monthly visitors and over 1 million original articles have been published on the cryptocurrency-related encyclopedia. As a decentralized information source, the content standards are determined by IQ token holders. In order to publish a new article on Everipedia, users must pay a certain fee in the platform’s native IQ cryptocurrency.
If a submission is approved by other Everipedia users, then the author or editor of the article gets their stake back and also receives some form of compensation from the network. If an article or edit is not approved, then the submitter’s IQ tokens are returned to them.
According to Everipedia’s founder, the online encyclopedia’s incentive structure is designed to discourage people from posting low-quality content or spam.
Commenting on how Everipedia will reach mass adoption, the platform’s founder noted:
The main issue with the blockchain space and the state of dApps right now is it’s too much about blockchain and crypto. The terminology and the marketing, front-facing stuff for the users. So I think what’s really going to take a project like Everipedia to the masses is focusing on being a better product. We want to attract users because we are superior to Wikipedia.
