New Cryptocurrency Set To Fight Fake News
October 27th, 2017 - San Mateo-based investment fund, HigherOrderVC has announced it’ll soon launch a new cryptocurrency, PressCoin, as part of its mission to empower independent journalists to fight ‘fake’ news and remain objective and financially independent.
PressCoin is essentially the monetization component of a blockchain-based publishing platform. It’s a cryptocurrency that takes value from a participating news site’s paid elements – such as native ad revenue and subscription fees – and distributes financial rewards to its content creators.
PressCoin’s blockchain functions as a decentralized ledger of its contributors’ interactions, engagement, and influence on the publishing platform. This means that those that contribute work to a given news site have an opportunity to be paid with PressCoin. The amount they receive is determined by the popularity, quality, and value of their work to each site’s community – it’s peer endorsed.
Content creators can then accept, trade, and exchange PressCoin for other crypto- or fiat currencies, using zero-fee digital wallets from HigherOrderVC-owned Cointype, which is coming out of stealth in the very near future
“Today journalists are bound to vested interests of publishers,” says Amit Rathore, PressCoin’s President. “More and more publishers are chasing advertising dollars. To get views they defer to social media platforms. And so does their content. This not only compromises the integrity of quality, independent journalism; it also pushes money onto social media platforms.
“Consequently, a great deal of what social media users see is part of an insular circle of ‘attention grabbing’ superficial non-news. PressCoin was set up to counter all of this, and to empower legitimate journalists to produce the stories that need telling in an impartial, balanced way. Similarly, PressCoin platforms like NextElection, already under development, creates a purposeful collaboration space for politicians, journalists and citizens, around specific elections at local, state, and national levels, globally”.
Initial Coin Offering
The company is launching a 28 day Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on November 22, in order to raise the financing needed to continue its expansion, and offer everyone the opportunity to invest in the platform. Each token is backed by an actual share of the company, and token holders become shareholders, creating a powerful and global asset-backed currency and economy.
PressCoin plans to publicly release 100,000,000 units to investors during the ICO. At the time of release, 1 PressCoin will be worth US$1. PressCoin will be the first ICO to accept existing cryptocurrencies and 170+ fiat currencies around the world. There are numerous incentives for those who invest early on in the ICO. See PressCoin’s white paper for further details.
As further revenue is generated, and other new outlets and ventures ‘plug-in’ to PressCoin the team will extend their accelerator to the PressCoin domain, funneling capital into startups around the world, investing in virtual newsrooms and technology teams working to improve the efficiency of the news and journalism industry.
PressCoin is already working with a number of credible news outlets who operate on publishing platform Quintype. These include Zolori, NextElection, and Insurge Intelligence.
“All credible news outlets are welcome to join this growing ecosystem,” says Rathore. “To do so, they simply need to adhere to PressCoin protocols.”
Rathore is joined by reputable partners to manage the funds raised and oversee the go to market and beyond. Insurge Intelligence, a flagship platform within the PressCoin economy is led by award-winning independent journalist, Dr. Nafeez Ahmed (named one of the top 1000 most influential people in London), along with partners Gunther Sonnenfeld (Groundswell Award winner) and Andrew Markell.
PressCoin is registered in the United Kingdom, and will become a Plc after the completion of the raise. The ICO begins on November 22, 2024. Interested parties can register to take part on the PressCoin website.