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If you are in Birmingham, United Kingdom, you can check on Yelp to find a good Argentine-style restaurant You might also like to see a review Ivan Stravensky wrote of his favorite restaurant and decided to eat there based on his brilliant recommendation.
There is only one problem: the review is false, very similar to Ivan himself . [19659003] When you buy something new or try a new service, many of us go online to see what other customers think: in fact, over 80% of adults in the United States read occasionally customer reviews before buying something for the first time, but only half of those who read reviews think to provide an accurate product description, according to Pew Research Center .
recen sions and online assessments can be manipulated. it is easy to falsify credibility online: in 2017, I created a false Russian named Ivan Stravensky . Of course, Ivan has never been to the Argentine restaurant in Birmingham, but this has not stopped him from writing a five-star review for this. A person found "useful".
All that is needed to create a person from scratch is a unique name, some social media accounts and some content, and this can be done repeatedly to create different shell accounts. With new online identities, anyone could easily review CEOs on Glassdoor, Amazon products, hotels on TripAdvisor, and dog grooming services on Yelp.
But blockchain may soon make it harder to create compelling false accounts. The result could be a more reliable, reliable and transparent internet.
Radical Transparency of Online Reviews
Last year, a US-based car dealer was forced to pay a fine of $ 3.6 million after he discovered he had has planted fake reviews . You might even remember the guy who managed to manipulate the TripAdvisor rating system to turn a shed into his backyard in the top-rated restaurant across London .
But with blockchain, there will be ways to track if the person who left a review has actually dined at the restaurant he is reviewing, he looked after their dog in the salon who rated or bought the product he is giving away to five stars.
Blockchain records the quantifiable data and stores it in a block, which is then added together in a chain of similar information blocks. Each block must be verified on a computer network before it can be added to the chain; once verified, it can not be changed, which means that the data is both transparent and secure.
This system can be used to create a digital map of someone, almost like an online ID; birth records, home addresses and university certificates can be stored on blockchain.
Blockchain could also monitor our daily activities. When linked to data generated through the Internet of Things, blockchain can record and verify that an employee is in a particular office on working days via location data or track customer purchase habits through their payment information.
In short, blockchain allows us to track and authenticate that we have direct knowledge of the products and services we are reviewing.
Initial startups lack the brand?
The reviews are big business, so much so that one man was sued in the United States for a review three-star that he left on TripAdvisor. The lawsuit claims he did not go on a specific tour that claimed to have been in his review. Using blockchain, the tour operator would be able to quickly verify this information.
Blockchain will be critical in creating new and radically transparent versions of review sites such as Yelp, Glassdoor and TripAdvisor.
Indeed, the radical transparency of the system is already transforming other industries. All Public A rt uses blockchain to verify the provenance of works of art. The basic principles of blockchain, or its ability to authenticate and verify transactions [19459266] can easily and quickly guarantee the validity of a previous transaction, thus confirming the ownership of the work of art.
But startups use blockchain to check reviews of online products, such as Zapit and Revain are currently focusing on the use of cryptocurrency to pay users when they publish truthful and accurate reviews. But blockchain is capable of much more than simply offering an "honesty incentive". Instead, a review can be immediately authenticated by checking the ID of a user and his transaction and the history of locations on the decentralized database.
The downsides of anonymity
The anonymity of users is central to the spirit and personality of sites like Reddit and niche networks like the Amino apps. Usernames can be basic or creative and it is not necessary to refer to the real identity of the real world of the user, which helps to promote communities in which people feel free to express their opinions. At the same time, anonymity also frees people to express hateful opinions and makes threatening remarks that, without the veil of anonymity of the internet, may not do so. But when it comes to looking for impartial information to help make purchasing decisions, anonymity is not helpful to other potential customers: how can they trust the review, when everyone knows that a completely invented character could be written?
Sites that have verification systems are more credible. Apps like Uber, Turo and Airbnb are linked to Facebook accounts and credit cards. Face ID, thumbprint and other verification methods offer users confidence in reviews; in addition, they make sure that users are concerned with the reviews they receive as "guests" or "riders", because these evaluations will follow them later. Obviously, it would be easy to create accounts on these platforms with a shell account, but these methods – documentation, user data, facial recognition – are solving verification problems.
Soon, this conversation could take a higher level of & nbsp; importance, especially now that AI robots are able to write oddly convincing reviews. In fact, it will be soon impossible to tell the difference between reviews written by bots and those written by real people.
Therefore, blockchain's contributions to radical transparency and to an increase in trustworthiness on the web are positive developments. It could be innovation that puts false news and fake reviews at ease.
Be realistic about implementation
However, verification and decentralization do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Imagine that Walmart uses blockchain technologies to track apples from the farm to their store at your table. How do you know that the apples you bought are actually organic or a certain farm if Walmart owns all the knots in the chain? At the beginning of the chain you trust that peasant; for the rest of the chain, you're trusting Walmart as you would without the blockchain.
Verification protocols must be incorporated with the wealth of data available and a certain amount of decentralization to make sense. When it comes to creating a more reliable world, the blockchain keeps incredible promises; however, there is still a way to go.
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If you're in Birmingham, UK, you can check on Yelp to find a good Argentine-style restaurant. You could even see a review that Ivan Stravensky wrote about his favorite restaurant, and decide to eat there based on his brilliant recommendation.
There is only one problem: the review is false, very similar to Ivan himself.
When you buy something new or try a new service, many of us go online to see what other customers think. In fact, over 80% of adults in the United States occasionally read reviews from online customers before buying something for the first time. But only half of those reading the reviews think to provide an accurate description of the product, according to the Pew Research Center.
This is because reviews and online ratings can be manipulated. I know firsthand how easy it is to falsify online credibility: in 2017 I created a fake Russian named Ivan Stravensky. Of course, Ivan has never been to the Argentine restaurant in Birmingham, but this has not stopped him from writing a five-star review for this. One person even found "useful".
All that is needed to create a person from scratch is a unique name, some social media accounts and some content, and this can be done repeatedly to create different shell accounts. With new online identities, anyone could easily review CEOs on Glassdoor, Amazon products, hotels on TripAdvisor, and dog grooming services on Yelp.
But blockchain may soon make it harder to create compelling false accounts. The result could be a more reliable, reliable and transparent internet.
Radical transparency of online reviews
Last year, a US-based car dealer was forced to pay a fine of $ 3.6 million after the discovery that he had planted fake reviews. You might even remember the guy who managed to manipulate the TripAdvisor rating system to turn a shed in his backyard into the top-rated restaurant in London.
But with blockchain, there will be ways to monitor if the person leaves a review actually we had dinner at the restaurant they are reviewing, taking care of their dog in the salon who have rated or bought the product they are giving away to five stars.
Blockchain records the quantifiable data and stores it in a block, which is then added together in a chain of similar information blocks. Each block must be verified on a computer network before it can be added to the chain; once verified, it can not be changed, which means that the data is both transparent and secure.
This system can be used to create a digital map of someone, almost like an online ID; birth records, home addresses and university certificates can be stored on blockchain.
Blockchain could also monitor our daily activities. When linked to data generated through the Internet of Things, blockchain can record and verify that an employee is in a particular office on working days via location data or track customer purchase habits through their payment information.
In short, blockchain allows us to track and authenticate that we have direct knowledge of the products and services we are reviewing.
Initial startups lack the brand?
Reviews are big business, so much so that one man is sued in the United States for a three-star review that he left on TripAdvisor. The lawsuit claims he did not go on a specific tour that claimed to have been in his review. Using blockchain, the tour operator would be able to quickly verify this information.
Blockchain will be critical in creating new and radically transparent versions of review sites such as Yelp, Glassdoor and TripAdvisor.
Indeed, the radical transparency of the system is already transforming other industries. All Public Art uses blockchain to verify the provenance of works of art. The fundamental principles of blockchain, ie its ability to authenticate and verify transactions, can easily and quickly guarantee the validity of a previous transaction, thus confirming ownership of the work.
But startups use blockchain to check reviews of online products, such as Zapit and Revain, are currently focusing on the use of cryptocurrency to pay users when they publish true and accurate reviews. But blockchain is capable of much more than simply offering an "honesty incentive". Instead, a review can be immediately authenticated by checking the ID of a user and his transaction and the history of locations on the decentralized database.
The downsides of anonymity
The anonymity of users is central to the spirit and personality of sites like Reddit and niche networks like the Amino apps. Usernames can be basic or creative and it is not necessary to refer to the real identity of the real world of the user, which helps to promote communities in which people feel free to express their opinions. At the same time, anonymity also frees people to express hateful opinions and makes threatening remarks that, without the veil of anonymity of the internet, may not do so. But when it comes to looking for impartial information to help make purchasing decisions, anonymity is not helpful to other potential customers: how can they trust the review, when everyone knows that a completely invented character could be written?
Sites that have verification systems are more credible. Apps like Uber, Turo and Airbnb are linked to Facebook accounts and credit cards. Face ID, thumbprint and other verification methods offer users confidence in reviews; in addition, they make sure that users are concerned with the reviews they receive as "guests" or "riders", because these evaluations will follow them later. Obviously, it would be easy to create accounts on these platforms with a shell account, but these methods – documentation, user data, facial recognition – are solving verification problems.
Soon, this conversation could take on a higher level of importance, especially now that AI robots are able to write oddly convincing reviews. In fact, it will soon be impossible to distinguish between reviews written by bots and those written by real people.
Therefore, the blockchain's contribution to radical transparency and to an increase in reliability on the web is a positive development. It could be innovation that puts false news and fake reviews at ease.
Be realistic about implementation
However, verification and decentralization do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Imagine that Walmart uses blockchain technologies to track apples from the farm to their store at your table. How do you know that the apples you bought are actually organic or a certain farm if Walmart owns all the knots in the chain? At the beginning of the chain you trust that peasant; for the rest of the chain, you're trusting Walmart as you would without the blockchain.
Verification protocols must be incorporated with the wealth of data available and a certain amount of decentralization to make sense. When it comes to creating a more reliable world, the blockchain keeps incredible promises; however, there is still a way to go.
