Cannabis Publication to Launch on Civil's Decentralized News Platform

Cannabis Wire, a trade publication dedicated marijuana industry coverage, is to launch a newsroom on blockchain-based journalism platform Civil.

According to an announcement from Civil, Cannabis Wire's newsroom is targeted at offering different types of content for both individual consumers and larger organizations such as farms, lawmakers and lobbyists.

“We’re promoting a more objective standard for responsibly covering the cannabis industry. Many people don't realize the scope of it today, and the myriad ways it can affect them," said Alyson Martin, co-founder of Cannabis Wire.

Civil touts a mechanism that can incentivize Cannabis Wire's newsroom staff to disseminate quality journalism by distributing the content over its decentralized platform. Readers pay for content with cryptocurrency, and the system sidesteps the need for advertisers and avoids political influence.

Newsrooms are self-governed by community members using Civil's ERC-20 "CVL" token. In addition, the platfrom also boasts that archives are tamper-proof, since content is stored on a distributed ledger.

Civil's decentralized newsroom received $5 million in funding last October last year from blockchain development firm ConsenSys. As reported, Civil said at the time half of the funding would be used to develop its services.

While still in development and the success of the newsroom's operation are yet to be seen, Civil has signed up at least five publications, including Cannabis Wire, according to its website.

Cannabis image via Shutterstock