Hive can do a lot of things.
Over time, we discussed the idea of gaming, databases, and cryptocurrency. We covered financial services such as bonds and lending, through the Hive Financial Network. all of these are still valid ideas meant to be pursued.
However, there is another use case that could pole vault to the top of importance in the future. It is something that will likely become evident in 2024, especially with the United States elections.
What I am referring to is artificial intelligence. Actually, this relates more to reputation and combating some of the nefarious things people will do with AI.
To the point, we are talking about deep fakes.
There is a lot of discussion about misinformation. This is something that is often a matter of perspective. Many things in life are debatable especially when it comes down to the meaning of what someone said.
Often we see the media take things completely out of content. An individual says something, which a sound bite is taken, and is presented in a way that does not mirror what the entire conversation is about. The presentation is such to drive some point and meant to alter what the individual meant.
This happens all the time and is really nothing new. What is not disputed in this situation is whether the person said it. We have video (or audio) of what was said. It is the content that is often manipulated.
The situation completely changes if the person never uttered these words. What if someone makes up a video of an individual, claiming they are saying something atrocious? Due to past conditioning, we are trained to believe what we see. However, this is no more real than a Hollywood film.
It is concerning a lot of people. Deep fakes can take individuals, especially public personalities, and make them seem real. This is true for those who have hours of language out there. Someone like Joe Rogan has thousands of shows, 2-3 hours each. That is a lot of data to train a system to deep fake his voice.
While this is still something a bit in the future, the way things are going, some of this is going to be indistinguishable in another year.
So what to do about it?
Here is where we see blockchain entering the picture. When anything is posted to a public blockchain, it is available for anyone to see. Transparency is one of its fundamental assets.
Technology cannot only deep fake the individual but the entire scenario around the situation. For example, it could take a political candidate, deep fake the person, and make it appear like this was put out by a major broadcast network such as CNN. Now it appears more believable to those who trust CNN.
How could blockchain counter this? To start, it could be shown that CNN did not release this video. If these are referenced on blockchain, the authenticity can be revealed simply by looking at the account.
Under these circumstances, we instantly see the questionability of the video due to the fact it is not from CNN. If someone is going to fake that, the likelihood of doing it to the candidate holds true.
We can also do the same for the major media outlets. They often use video clips made by others. Here again we can validate the authenticity. By tracking the video back to the source, we can see if WPIT in Pittsburgh really created it. Again, if it isn't from that entity, it is likely faked.
Ultimately, what we are discussing is tied to reputation. Here is where we are seeing a massive opportunity in the future.
Basically, how can we trust people online especially with the advancement of technology? This gets really convoluted when we try to maintain privacy, at least to some degree.
Blockchain can help by providing a reputation system. All that an individual (or company) does on a public network of this nature can be seen. The key system ensure that only the owner can write to the chain. When this is tied to the trust of 1,000 or 2,000 different on-chain activities, we can see the progress.
Hive offers something else: named accounts.
Here is a difference from many other blockchains. They started focusing upon the financial aspect of digital ledger technology. However, social media doesn't operate this way. Neither does a reputation system.
In fact, how do you have a reputation system tied to an account that is a strong of 64 letters and numbers? It is not very efficient.
Hive doesn't have this issue. Instead, we have the situation where users can decide on their name. This makes engagement easier. It also helps with the identification of the digital persona.
When we expand this to companies, we can see how this will make a radical difference. If someone is trying to fake by pretending to be that company, it is easily refuted. Anything not coming from that account is to be ignored.
How would a system like this work?
That is something to be still resolved. We are still at the point where a valid reputation system is being constructed. However, the point, as always, is nothing is operating in a vacuum.
When you see something discussed as a serious issue (danger), think of how can blockchain aid in solving this. A reputation system is something that can easily be tied to something bigger, the faking of others.
After all, what we are discussing is the basis of trust. How do we assign trust in a trustless system? That is what blockchain was designed for.
Something I am describing could be a combination of applications, blockchain, and maybe even NFTs. All could be tied together as a means of authenticating the individual or company. We know that tracking of our digital footprints is taking place. This is done by the major tech companies that use it to their advantage.
With a blockchain, that tracking can be done publicly, as a means of establishing trust. NFTs can be used as access tokens, furthering the validity of what is created.
For example, let us use the news idea. Perhaps an application creates a NFT that is only available to news entities. We can think of this as an industry standard. Companies that in the industry are given the NFTs. If they want to post, the application reads the wallet, looking for the access token. When it finds it, the post is approved, tagged by the application. Suddenly, there is another layer developed by the application.
Another way might be creating a code for each video that is posted on it. The code is posted to the blockchain from the company account, showing the authenticity. It could be randomly generated so that nobody knows what it will be. However, if the code in the video and on-chain do not match, it is not from that entity.
Of course, history ends up working for or against someone. If an account establishes a track record of deep fakes or misleading information, then we can see how that will quickly spread. This will not bode well for those who depend upon misdirection but that is the way things go. Many politicians are going to find that their ability to deny things will diminish as a trail is fully established.
On blockchain, the data is always there for someone to look at.
Perhaps it is time to look at Hive basics characteristics. Blockchain was designed to bring trust in a trustless manner. We know this works for the monitoring and updating of the ledger. What else can it be used for?
How about bringing trust to the authenticity of content that is posted? This is going to become a more important issue as deep fakes accelerate due to the advancement of technology.
