2023-01-19 · timestamps by ADAtainment
UPD 01/19/2023
- With DCG in trouble and shedding assets, CoinDesk is up for sale at around 200 million dollars, which looks overpriced given a gross profit near 50 million.
- The deeper interest is in building an elite media institution with real journalistic integrity, after years of receiving bad and sometimes agenda driven coverage.
- Key ideas include veracity bonds, stories as living NFTs that can be followed up and interconnected, and dedicated writing space for the top blockchain projects.
- A decentralized outlet could be incubated for five to ten million dollars and outcompete CoinDesk, rather than overpaying for the brand.
- Given the close association with Cardano, objectivity would come from veracity bonds and community interaction, plus disclosed author biases and paired writers.
20 entries
With DCG failing and selling off assets, CoinDesk is reportedly raising money or being acquired.
The asking price hovers around 200 million dollars for an outright purchase.
DCG acquired CoinDesk in 2016 for 500,000 dollars, so 200 million would be a roughly 400x markup.
The real interest is what makes an elite media institution, having been the recipient of a lot of bad media.
FTX paid The Block to steer coverage and CoinTelegraph is owned by an oligarch, since everyone wants an outlet to project influence.
Veracity bonds would make a publisher stake money that they lose if what they publish turns out inaccurate.
Veracity bonds create a financial incentive to fact check the fact checkers, and every story could be an NFT that evolves.
Stories rarely get follow ups, like a car driving into a restaurant with no resolution, so each story should be a living object people can fund to continue.
An industry outlet could give each of the top 100 blockchain projects a segregated space to publish regularly.
A separate investigative unit with whistleblower technology becomes easier when projects sit close to the media.
There is a large design space for content incentives, from Steemit and Hive to the BAT advertising model.
CoinDesk's real value is its events unit and the Consensus conference, but at 200 million it looks overpriced.
Rather than buying CoinDesk, it may make more sense to spend five or ten million to incubate a decentralized organization that outcompetes its neighbors.
CoinDesk lacks a metaverse and strong video, and partnerships with Messari and a Lace wallet information layer could add value.
Given the tight association with Cardano and Midnight, any acquisition would raise questions of perceived bias.
A stateful system could hold YouTubers accountable when they say untrue things influenced by their holdings or sponsorships.
Max Kaiser once broke Ethereum and Cardano news and issued MaxCoin, then went team orange and compared Hoskinson to Epstein over PPP money.
Beyond a NOLAN style chart, disclose author biases and pair opposing writers to co author an article to balance it.
The FTX failure and the excesses of 2021 reveal that everyday people simply should not trust the news, which carries hidden agendas.
A better journalism layer could reform crypto and then extend into political journalism and other broken fields.