The Associated Press, an independent global news organization, is teaming up with blockchain-based encyclopedia Everipedia to publish and distribute the 2020 US election results directly onto a blockchain.
The results will be published via Everipedia, which runs on the EOS blockchain, and will make use of another blockchainblockchain called Chainlink.
Larry Sanger wants Everipedia to be a post-truth Wikipedia
In 2001, Larry Sanger co-founded Wikipedia, which has become the largest, most frequently consulted encyclopedia in human history. Every month, some 1.5 billion users flock to its vast, online library. It has 5.8 million articles, which have been translated into 303 different languages. If one day the Internet—or even humanity itself—were obliterated, surely Wikipedia would be remembered (by aliens, perhaps) as one of its crowning achievements. Sanger, however, thinks it sucks. “It’s hard to re...
“AP is the gold standard in counting the vote and declaring election winners, and we are pleased to work with Everipedia to use our race calls in this innovative way,” said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP director of data licensing.
The AP has been responsible for counting the vote in every US election—including national, state, and local—since 1848. Now, the historied organization is turning to the blockchain and its data oracles to add further transparency and trust to proceedings.
To do so, AP will cryptographically sign data and publish its cryptographic key via Everipedia's Chainlink-powered data oracle. An oracle connects real-world data, such as election results, to a blockchain.
What Is Chainlink? A Beginner’s Guide to the Decentralized Oracle Network
Blockchain technology is powerful but has a fundamental limitation: it cannot access real-world data on its own. Smart contracts, essential to many blockchains and decentralized finance applications, rely on external data to function. This is where “oracle networks” like Chainlink come in. Oracles enable smart contracts to securely pull data from a wide range of information sources, instead of relying on a single provider. Over 14 blockchain ecosystems are compatible with Chainlink, including Et...
"This ‘oracle-as-a-service’ platform will be offered to industry-leading organizations to publish data feeds directly on the blockchain," Everipedia stated. "Organizations will be able to earn revenue for publishing reputable data on a wide range of topics including prices, election results, sports statistics/scores, weather, and news,” it added.
However, oracles can be manipulated, whether it be via a hack or a software bug—no matter how reputable the source.
