In a video published on Mar 12, Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys creator, stated that blockchain technology can bring exceptional benefits to content creators as well as journalists.

After mentioning other industries that can take advantages from the technology, Lubin pivots to discuss the journalism industry. He brought out the case of Civil, a ConsenSys company that is working to bring content to the consumer without commercial intermediaries. Lubin said that newsroom can form a code of ethics and stake that security bond on the platform, thanks to the platform like Civil:

“If they break that pledge in some way, their readership, their listenership can call them to task, can challenge their stake and potentially have them bumped off the platform.”  

Regarding to the art industry, Lubin said that blockchain can have “dramatically” positive impacts on artists. The technology is said to transform the method of consuming and sharing contents, as well as removing the influence of third parties. Use cases are derivative works, streaming, public performances, etc.

“I think artists in the music industry on average capture about 11 or 12 percent of the value in the industry and those big record companies are sucking up 70 or so percent. We can replace those record companies with smart contracts on the Ethereum platform.”

While promoters still be the intermediaries, they will not be able to “get to a commanding position where they’re extracting enormous rents just because of their intermediary role.”, Lubin continued.