The Blockchain project of Facebook and the adoption of new technologies by the social network

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10 December 2018 11:30 PM

Which blockchain technology could appear on the most famous social network in the world and who could want it.

When a company like Facebook publishes five job openings in search of blockchain-related talent, it seems like a big step towards the adoption of growing technology. Now, it is probably a euphemism to say that Facebook has its problems (some of which ETHNews has covered), but with a total of 2.27 billion monthly active users worldwide for 2018, it would be hard to deny that the implementation of Facebook blockchain technology can bring the tool to a gigantic audience.

Facebook launched its blockchain team in May 2018, leading the project David Marcus – former president of PayPal and vice president of the Facebook Messenger app division -. What Facebook will develop in terms of blockchain has not been revealed in recent job advertisements. Most of what can be gleaned is the jargon of basic job description, looking for those who "share a passion for coping with complexity" and reaching out to people they want "[explore] the opportunity that the blockchain will bring ".

Facebook's privacy issues seem to be the most obvious starting point for blockchain technology to deal with, but until the company tells us what they are planning, no one can imagine what it will do. A look at what Facebook is currently trying to do to improve its platform, however, could give some ideas on how it will implement the use of blockchain and who, if that is why, might even want it.

Facebook, journalism and blockchains

The use of internet at an advanced stage is a strange beast, especially when it comes to how we consume the news. Generally, there is no need to look for it – information can only be stumbled in some way. It's so absolutely convenient, and Facebook is an important part of how people in the United States stumble over information. According to a study by the Pew Research Center in September 2018, 43% of American adults still receive news from Facebook, despite the fact that they "expect that the news they see on social media is largely inaccurate".

In January 2017, Facebook launched its "Facebook Journalism Project", which, among other things, seeks to "forge stronger ties between Facebook and the news industry" by collaborating with news organizations to improve the 39; news literacy and Facebook efforts to curb the hoax news.

This article is not an in depth dive into fake news, erroneous news and the role of Facebook in delineating / outlining what 43% of Americans see, but if the company is already trying to promote the literacy of news and to eliminate hoaxes, blockchain could be a useful tool In theory, a network of public, encrypted and identical data blocks would allow news organizations to authenticate the content that is seen on Facebook, something that the company has tried to do to its users in December 2017, but not necessarily degree.

Again, all this is only at the end, and the general idea of ​​Facebook working on blockchain technology requires a substantial suspension of reality: that Facebook would give up owning the information of its users. If one of the major statutes of blockchain technology is giving individuals ownership of their data, then it would seem unintuitive to allow Facebook to be Facebook – providing information to advertisers, creating targeted ads and showing us only what we want (or what we think that we want to see.

It seems simply naive to see him start working with a transformation technology and think that this is the moment when Facebook will consider how its users are hit daily by its platform – and how that platform is set for specific targets its individual users (especially knowing that the project involves Marcus, who oversaw the advertising of the Messenger app in advertising).

If there will never be any of this, maybe the blockchain project of Facebook means that in four or five years we will have another Aaron Sorkin playing with a Jesse Eisenberg type walking and talking along a long corridor, quickly talking about a social network on the blockchain to distract us for an hour and a half. I'm thinking something like "The Social Network 2: Social Network Harder".

Nicholas Ruggieri studied English with emphasis on creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno. When he is not mentioning Vines to anyone who is willing to listen, you will find him listening to too many podcasts, reading too many books and crochet too many sweaters for his dogs, RT and Peterman.

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