Everipedia.org, Wikipedia’s competitor, launched its own decentralized service. Now, for adding and editing new materials, you can receive cryptocurrency and manage the service yourself.
If before Everipedia could be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, the launch of mainnet means it will now move from a traditional web hosting service to blockchain with a new URL.
Wikipedia appeared in 2001, while Everipedia in 2014. Why does the world have two online encyclopedias, you may ask. The fact is that these services are arranged in different ways. Adding and editing materials on Everipedia is easier. This is a more democratic client, although it must be acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of materials in this encyclopedia is simply ripped from the competitor.
In Wikipedia, users can change the content, sometimes add more information, as well as sometimes tamper and spread misinformation. This is the weak link in Wikipedia’s chain.
While Everipedia’s idea is to build a tamper-proof groundwork where editors of original contents are getting rewarded with the newly introduced IQ token, based on EOS blockchain. Setting up the encyclopedia based on a blockchain will also greatly improve the authentication processes for new articles.
In early 2018, Everipedia team received $30 million of investment to launch the blockchain service. The investor was the EOS Foundation, so all EOS token holders were airdropped with IQ tokens. This asset is a change of coin for a new service. They will pay for the services of editors and authors of articles. This model will increase the number of materials. Another nuance is that in Everipedia there will be no advertising: if the project is able to generate profits, advertising is not needed.
At the end of 2017, Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia, joined the Everipedia team. Larry dropped the previous project because he really wanted to create a more perfect version of the online encyclopedia.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
1. Keeping records safe and untampered for a free online encyclopedia is a major step.
2. Countries like China, Uzbekistan, and France have all taken actions to censor Wikipedia in varying ways. Since April 2017, all language versions of Wikipedia are banned in Turkey. Everipedia aims to end this, using a technology called the InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS.
3. New additions and genuine changes of articles will be rewarded by an IQ token.
Another founding member of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, on the other hand, mentioned that Wikipedia is not going to have anything related with ICOs or cryptocurrencies. He believes that it is an interesting technology but also a bubble surrounded by hype.
Jimmy Wales attended ‘The Future of Digital Transformation’ discussion held in Moscow on July 12 and argued that although the digital transformation has somewhat sped up in recent years, it may not be welcomed by all.