
“nothing resembling consensus” about whether online misinformation can be solved - tareqak
http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/10/there-is-nothing-resembling-consensus-about-whether-the-online-misinformation-problem-can-actually-be-solved/
======
tareqak
Actual title: _There is “nothing resembling consensus” about whether the
online misinformation problem can actually be solved_

Techmeme summary: _Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: Pew survey of 1,116
technologists and other experts: consensus that current environment is
conducive to misinfo; 51% say things won't improve over next decade_

I have a totally uninformed, "stab-in-the-dark" question: aren't blockchain-
based technologies a way to get consensus in an environment where you can't
trust anyone? i.e. obtain and maintain Byzantine fault tolerance.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance)

~~~
dozzie
> I have a totally uninformed, "stab-in-the-dark" question: aren't blockchain-
> based technologies a way to get consensus [...]?

Yes, totally uninformed. Blockchain is not for establishing consensus, but for
timestamping documents.

~~~
tareqak
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance#In_practice)

> One example of BFT in use is bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency
> system. The bitcoin network works in parallel to generate a chain of
> Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work chain is the key to overcome
> Byzantine failures and to reach a coherent global view of the system state.

~~~
dozzie
Well, no, not quite. It's nowhere near "coherent", as in "all people at a
designated time have exactly the same view of the global state", as this is
what Byzantine generals problem requires. What people in Bitcoin can tell is
which one of the two transactions that share at least one account is earlier.
Bitcoin doesn't _solve_ Byzantine generals problem, it _avoids_ it.

------
Rotdhizon
That doesn't really need a study to be done. That's common sense, people will
spread false information in any scenario.

