Everipedia: Larry Sanger Talks Blockchain Based Wikipedia

By Prashant Jha

Larry Sanger, one of the co-founders of the Wikipedia, has recently talked about implementation of blockchain in the current education sector. During an interview with Boxlife.tv, Larry shared some of the insights and plans on implementing blockchain to the Wikipedia and how it would benefit the writing community as a whole.

What is Everipedia

Larry Sanger is pioneering the new Everipedia Blockchain IQ project. The aim behind the plan is to eliminate the old-age centralized form of knowledge sharing over the internet.

The blockchain based Everipedia would use the basics of distributed ledger system, where the quality of work they produce would govern the financial aspects for the writer.

The main aim is to develop a system which is decentralized, censorship-resistant and democratic. The IQ token holders on the platform would hold the key in decision making. You earn tokens from the quality of work you produce as well as you can buy them.

The interview

 

How can blockchain be implemented for verifying information and sources?

Larry Sanger explains, the Everipedia is going to be the Fork of Wikipedia, and wikis, in general, are self-sufficient. Self-sufficient as in, the information gets added by the community and those pieces of information get polished over time. However, the authenticity of the info is not guaranteed, and that is where blockchain comes into the picture.

In the second leg of the everipedia project, a content rating system would be put in place, where the most informative and well-sourced articles would be given preference. The better content would give your profile a boost, which would convert into monetary gains.

Currently, there is no system in place to rate the content, because of the monopoly of few over the internet. Everipedia wants to establish a neutral internet protocol, which can only be achieved if it is put on a decentralized Blockchain system.

 

What is ‘neutral internet protocol,’ is it going to be a stand-alone system for verifying information?

Everipedia would introduce the IQ token system, and the holders have to come up with a weighted average rating sort of thing. Larry clarifies that he is the pioneer of the system but not the sole decision-maker, and 51% of the IQ holders control the distributed network. The distributed decision making would bring democratic reform to the Everipedia network.

 

What is the role of IQ token holders in decision making?

The IQ token holders would validate any changes on the network, just like Miners do in case of cryptocurrencies. They would decide whether the edits and revisions made into an article are acceptable. Larry further says that they are currently working on a smart contract vote, which would govern the operations on the network. The system represents democracy at the root, and it would be like a new co-constitution which would be encoded on a smart contract.

 

The mention of the constitution makes the project sound like a new country, what is the idea behind it?

Larry explains, online communities are kind of small countries, where they adhere by specific rules of the online community. With Everipedia, those rules are going to be decentralized and genuinely democratic. The decision making is not in the hands of few, and you do not have to be a founder or investor on the project to be a part of the decision making process.

 

What is wrong with the current state of things and the system which we are following today?

Today’s system is minimal and slow, the decision making power is in the hand of few. If someone wants to make a change or write on a topic, it will take months to compile the whole things and more than that, get it verified from sources. The decision-making system is not decentralized correctly. Even the wrong info can stay on the platform for months, and anyone can remove right ones.

 

As a token holder how much time one needs to contribute to the everipedia?

It would depend on the token holder. One can become a token holder and never look back at the Everipedia if they want. But, that is not what Larry would expect from the holders. To keep the system decentralized, at least the token holder must vote on important decisions.

 

What was the drive behind the project, given you have numerous ventures in the encyclopedia business.?

Larry explains, being a Ph.D.d in philosophy, he specializes in the theory of knowledge. The love for deductive systems and a well-constructed encyclopedia in a certain way represent a semantic hierarchy. Larry believes knowledge in the present world is highly undervalued and finds it ironic that most of the educators are the reason behind it.

 

How Is Knowledge undervalued at present?

Larry believes the educators today are partially responsible for it, especially in the United States. The phrases such as “facts don’t matter,” and “students need to learn how to learn.” This form of education undermines practical knowledge; people must know the difference between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.

He explains,

“Educators are all into procedural knowledge and how to learn. If learning how to learn is supposed to be a valued thing worth teaching, it has to be because having learned things is actually valuable.”