My Plans for CoinDesk: A Web 3.0 Approach to the Biggest Story of All
I’m pleased to confirm that on Oct. 28, I’ll be taking on a senior role coordinating all forms of content for CoinDesk, the leading provider of news, event programming and research for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. I’ll begin part-time in order to wind down other commitments, but as of Jan. 1, I’ll be the full-time Chief Content Officer.
I’m super excited to assume a position that marks a full-circle journey for me. After I left The Wall Street Journal in 2015 to join the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT Media Lab, I expected to devote my time to research. But I found that media and storytelling remained the thing I did best and most enjoyed, which is why I accepted a 2017 offer from CoinDesk CEO Kevin Worth to chair the company’s advisory board. At the same time, I became increasingly interested in the role that blockchain and digital content metadata can play to address some of the challenges confronting digital media. That led me to co-found Streambed Media, which is developing provenance-tracking technology for videos and other digital media products. Now, with this new, significantly expanded role at CoinDesk, I look forward to combining those related interests into building a cutting-edge, globally impactful media outlet.
The Storytelling Opportunity
There is no bigger story in finance or economics, as far as I’m concerned, than the coming impact of blockchain and related technologies on the world. I believe decentralized trust platforms will spur the most significant changes in how society handles information since the Internet. And they will eventually turn the world of money, wealth and value upside down. All this will give rise to a new generation of global investors and businesspeople hungry for the information that CoinDesk will serve them.
In this vibrant, ever-changing industry, there is much to talk about. While mainstream media has focused on the sideshow of cryptocurrency markets, engineers have been developing innovative solutions to blockchain technology’s scaling, security and other challenges, paving the way for what looks like its prime-time moment. High-profile companies such as Facebook and JP Morgan, as well as sovereign states like China, are directly employing hybrid, permissioned version of the technology, setting up a conflict with the more radical, permissionless vision of bitcoin and its offspring. I feel privileged to help shape the narrative around these important changes and what it means for currencies, business organization, identity and law. I’m also eager to strengthen the media watchdog function needed to ensure that the entrepreneurs investing in this space are held to account in the interest of broad public trust. With CoinDesk committed to a major expansion in personnel and other resources, we are in pole position to do both.
Eating our Own Dog Food
The other opportunity before us is to reinvent media itself, which entered a state of crisis with the advent of the Web 2.0 era. Algorithmic curation of news by social media platforms has done enormous harm to journalism, disconnecting publishers from their readers and viewers, leading to abuses of users’ data, manipulative propaganda, fake news and public mistrust in the press and other institutions. But in the coming Web 3.0 era, self-sovereign digital identity, tokenized incentives, and a new, pro-privacy, user-centric data architecture herald a unique opportunity to redo the model and restore trust. I look forward to using these tools to foster a first-of-its-kind collaborative relationship with CoinDesk’s readers, viewers and event attendees to develop a vibrant, engaged, respectful community of users.
Independence
I want to stress that I would never have accepted this role unless I was 100% satisfied with the commitment from both CoinDesk and its parent company, the Digital Currency Group, to the independence of editorial and other content operations. I view open-source cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as a public good, a resource for the world to share. It is vital, therefore, that we strive for equitable access and input to the ideas that drive it, and that those in positions of privilege to shape the tech’s evolution and profit from it are held to account. Accordingly, I vow to ensure that DCG sustains its commitment to non-interference in CoinDesk’s editorial operations and to protect the interests and independence of our journalists, researchers and event programmers. In fact, even bigger measures are being made to uphold the editorial team’s independence, including a charter laying out those first principles. I also look forward to engaging the advisory board — under a yet-to-be-named new chairman — to help us produce content of the highest quality in the service of the public interest. In all, I’m confident CoinDesk’s journalism will continue to meet the high standards of integrity I’ve been accustomed to over a three-decade career.
As for my own interests and potential conflicts, I had previously maintained a handful of corporate advisory positions during my non-staff role as Chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board. Now that I will be on-staff, I have since resigned from all compensated positions with private companies. I will continue as a part-time paid lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management until the end of the year, but after that my only association with MIT will be as an unpaid, zero-time senior advisor to the Digital Currency Initiative. I will persist with a number of unpaid non-profit advisory positions, including at the Deep Trust Alliance, which is working to combat the problem of deep fakes, and as the MIT-Yale Open Solar Project, which I founded at the Digital Currency Initiative. As for investments, my only relevant disclosure is that I hold a small amount of bitcoin.
With regards to Streambed, the company I co-founded as CEO, I have adopted the title of Chairman and, for now, am helping the team bring in new management, raise funds and develop its business plan. But as of January, my role will be a non-operational one. I am hopeful that Streambed will engage with CoinDesk in helping develop its Web 3.0 strategy.
Pete
Finally, a word about Pete Rizzo, the former editor-in-chief, who left that post on the day CoinDesk staffers were told about my appointment. No one played a more significant role in the early development of CoinDesk than Pete. He fought hard day in, day out, in an often-hostile environment for his journalists to be free to ask tough questions, write probing articles, and explain these crazy new ideas to a world that often didn’t understand. I would never have joined CoinDesk as an advisor if it weren’t for the confidence I had in Pete Rizzo’s adherence to the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Now, as CoinDesk enters a new era, with a somewhat different focus and growth mindset, we’ll be building on top of the platform that Pete built. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude.
Thanks for indulging me in this public airing. I look forward to working with you all in developing a world-class news and information service that tells the story of a new economic era
