Decentralized blockchain project launches contest to build next Wikipedia

A decentralized blockchain project has launched a new contest as it vies to build the next Wikipedia.

Free TON says there are a number of issues that are holding the online encyclopedia project back. It claims that the current rules and social mechanics of Wikipedia actively discourage people from making a contribution — and all this means the community is much smaller than it potentially could be.

Because of this, the site misses out on experienced potential contributors who could have added valuable knowledge.

Some of the issues that Free TON wants to resolve in Freecyclopedia contest include the fact that Wikipedia lacks detailed statistics for analysis — despite the fact that every edit performed on a page is logged. A dearth of such data means that decision-making is based on individual experience and the personal bias of old-timers and administrators. With the main focus on fair and community-driven involvement, the project offers Byzantine Fault Tolerance Governance (BFTg), ensuring the decentralization of the future platform.

There can also be uneven coverage of topics because most people don’t contribute to articles that lie outside of their interests, meaning that there needs to be an effort to ensure communities focus their efforts on underdeveloped pages.

Free TON also claims that the minimum standards for article quality on Wikipedia are low — and many are poorly written, incorrect or outdated. It also claims that the platform takes editorial work for granted, and writers should be better rewarded for their contributions.

Taking on Wikipedia

Free TON is holding its contest in two stages. The first — taking place from June 30 to August 18 — involves creating a specification for decentralized governance, and the second concerns project implementation. The participants can win as much as 165,000 TON, which accounts for $80,000 at press time.

Participants will be expected to come up with a solution that can accommodate multiple distributed authors, a fiscal stimulus for work and a consensus between users to confirm correctness — tasks that the latest-generation blockchains are designed to solve.

“Free TON has everything that the Wikipedia governance system lacks — an advanced consensus mechanism, a scalable and fast blockchain with smart contracts that implement any operating logic,” the project said.

An inefficient system

According to Free TON, we now face a situation where thousands of new articles are waiting to be approved before they can go up on the English version of Wikipedia — and the backlog can take several months.

Worse still, those who make a contribution aren’t given assistance or advice, meaning that they receive little more than a yes or no answer as they attempt to get their article approved.

The blockchain project is hoping to blend reliable quality control with a good experience for users — all while ensuring that the process of deleting articles is more transparent.

A prize pool of 165,000 TON has been established for the first stage of the contest, and participants who finish in the top 10 places after their submissions have been judged by the jury will be eligible for a share. The person in 10th place will receive 3,000 TON — and the prize increases by a further 3,000 TON for every subsequent higher place in the ranking.