Civil’s Blockchain Media Network Criticized in the Financial Times Alphaville

Civil’s Media-Based Blockchain’s Network Criticized in the Financial Times Alphaville

The Civil blockchain project is currently facing challenges in hitting its ICO target following criticisms from the media industry; some journalists are yet to agree that it is indeed a free press platform.

The Debate on Free or Independent Press

Civil’s blockchain design has been put under question by popular news media outlets like the Financial Times. The token economy used to power content posted on its platform has been the highlight of this project, both positively & negatively as it stands.

According to Alphaville from the Financial Times, the approach taken by Civil might actually not be a free press idea as referred to by its team. The argument was supported by the fact that Civil’s idea to put more check on journalism by challenging posts based on staking & token rewards was actually a form of censorship. Alphaville’s suggestion that the term ‘free press’ might actually be displaced was supported by Civil’s CEO, Vivian Schiller, who said that they might consider ‘independent press’ instead.

For those who have taken a keen look on Civil’s Constitution, some issues & objectives clearly stand out in this project. The first one is enabling users to oversee any biased content by leveraging their curiosity. In doing so, they will report any news that seems to have political, promotional or any other motivations that do not align with the purpose of unbiased media.

A couple of questions are yet to be answered on Civil’s potential loopholes. The ecosystem is dependent on motivation; this simply means that competitors can vote against each other dismissing content that was unbiased & admitting the biased one. However, Civil has created a council that will over such issues; this is not a guarantee that they will have zero motivations.

CIVIL Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

This project recently reviewed its ICO targets following the low market response within the crypto space right now. Initially, the start-up was targeting over $30 million but has since settled for something between $8 – 24 million. At the moment, the crypto markets are yet to replicate the price action seen in Q4 of 2017 although it’s too early to conclude anything. So far, the project has managed to raise around $2 million with half of this being proceeds from its founding entity, ConsenSys.

Crypto analysts have attributed some of Civil’s ICO raising challenges to a focus on network participants at the expense of speculators. In a recent piece by NeimanLab, the processes of acquiring Civil tokens as well as the challenges are well highlighted as we approach to the closing of this ICO. The potential of Civil’s blockchain ecosystem has been praised by its CEO, Schiller;

”Civil is a place for ethical, high-quality journalism. The Civil Constitution defines ethical journalism on Civil. People can use CVL tokens to vote and thwart bad actors or propose improvements to how it works.”

In summary, Civil’s future cannot be underestimated despite a poor ICO performance. The blockchain-based media start-up enjoys backing from a strong parent company within the blockchain industry. ConsenSys is a global blockchain oriented company that might largely benefit if Civil’s idea sells & crypto markets rally as per Q4 expectations!