Storytelling in blockchain

Intro

A ledger, information/narratives, and a process of data analysis, verification, and validation. Stated this way, it might seem cryptic, like a secret service affair. Instead, it is precisely the opposite.

The elements of the blockchain (explained in the link here), which we define for convenience as a technologically advanced and transparent system that uses a peer-to-peer approach to verify and validate interactions and transactions between users, are, in fact, the same ones we use every day without realizing it.

Let’s think about social networks and, as a metaphor, imagine Facebook as a large ledger, where everything is recorded in real-time, destined to remain as a gigantic memory that becomes immutable; let’s think about the sequences, the so-called blocks, interactions between users within the same topics or subjects (for example, to bring it back to social networks, the narratives of debates or groups); and, finally, to the continuous digging process that involves each of us in searching for sources, comparing information, trying to establish their importance, truthfulness, and reliability.

A risky metaphor, I realize, but all in all, the simplest and most direct way to understand what blockchain is all about.

If we imagine stories as a kind of currency (since the best-known application of blockchain is that of cryptocurrencies), perhaps we would have a clearer picture. Stories, narratives, storytelling, are the many exchanges, interactions that shape the social system.

They are made up of conventional pacts in which time, attention, and trust are spent. An agreement in which users “write” their exchanges every day, enriching discursive blocks with their behaviors, re-elaborations, interpretations, points of view: storytelling.

Here is a first element of fundamental and absolute importance. Scarcity. Even if we think of the digital world as an infinite universe, blockchain traces and fixes the interactions and participatory activities of users to the immutability of the Ledger. Which is a bit like those who tell you to be careful what you write on the web because then it stays.

Wikipedia

In fact, the goal in this type of network is precisely this. To keep the exchanges in an authenticated and non-manipulable source. Let’s try, however, to make another example, and since the theme is the application of this system to contexts other than fintech, and since I deal with Digital Humanities, that is, the alignment of humanistic or social science skills with the potential of technology, let’s try to expand the field to Wikipedia.

Born in 2001 thanks to the intuition of a group of tech entrepreneurs, including Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, who migrated from a premature financial career to his love of encyclopedic culture, in a very brief summary, we could say that it closely resembles the structure of the blockchain (explained in the link here).

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia created by users, a ledger in which encyclopedic sequences, the storytelling of information (whether categories of knowledge or simple entries), are built and corrected by its members in a continuous exercise of source verification and validation (mining).

The goal is not only to contribute to the intellectual and cognitive well-being of humanity (although, according to Wales, the original motivation seems to be just that), but also to write a plausible code of knowledge so that it is valid and accepted by everyone.

We still don’t know how much of this can become relevant in the coming years, for example, in countering the devastating spread of fake news, but it is a fact that the debate is now mature enough to tackle the issue.

Application Fields

The application field of blockchain technology is still very broad. In a research paper titled “Story Blocks: Reimagining narrative through the blockchain” published in 2017 by Deborah Maxwell of the University of York, Chris Speed and Larissa Pschetz of the University of Edinburgh, interesting insights are found.

The researchers present three experiments, each dedicated to one of the elements of the blockchain: the ledger, blocks, and the mining process (explained in the link here).

It would be complex to describe their work in detail, so I refer to the paper for further reading. However, what comes out is the opportunity to implement solutions for all those fields or collaboration platforms that involve the sharing and progressive construction of a creative process, generating tangible, verifiable, and immutable storytelling thanks to the blockchain.

We have given the example of social media and Wikipedia. Think about how important it would be, in contexts and models such as the sharing economy services, to be able to use the blockchain to regulate commercial transactions, purchasing behavior, and opinions on the validity and actual effectiveness of services (and it must be said that, given the moment, most social media platforms have structured themselves in a commercial mode, making tools such as APIs and protocols accessible, aimed at allowing users to sell and buy products of all kinds according to the great and announced revolution of total commerce).

Let’s think about another area of widespread creativity, and let’s think again about the current situation. The pandemic has exploded the need to collaborate using freeware platforms, which are not entirely capable of keeping their promises in terms of reliability, privacy, and security.

Today we design with Trello, Slack, or Google Docs, we take and exchange the files that interest us from Dropbox, we send them with Wetransfer, we organize webinars on Zoom, Teams, Skype, or Streamyard (to mention some examples of the impressive myriad of tools).

All products that, precisely because they offer a free usage base, obtain access to our data as a counter-currency. It is no coincidence that in these very recent times, issues have arisen, even uncomfortable ones, regarding the impossibility of guaranteeing security against hacker attacks or other types of intrusions. Cybercrime rages where the system is weaker and more open. The explosion of e-commerce on all digital channels can only complicate matters.

Collaborative supply chain

In addition to the relationship between broadcasters or digital service retailers and users, there is the thorny issue of the relationship between colleagues involved in a collaborative supply chain.

In a creative process that respects itself, the result is guaranteed by a work scheme that involves steps, feedback, and new elaborations (think, for example, of the issue of agencies and clients).

Blockchain is a transparent system that can actually contribute to making the evolution of a job more efficient while respecting roles, objectives, and activities.

In this case, we also find ourselves in the emergency of smart working, which, however, can become a real opportunity. Time will tell us which direction is best to follow.

Humanities and Culture

I leave for last, not because of order of importance, but for simple priority of the topics, the issue of Humanities and Culture.

In these sectors, the possible applications are infinite. Consider, for example, the possibility of cataloging an artist’s works, perhaps by being able to code and fix the different movements that a work has made in its journeys between acquisitions, collections, and storage in the warehouses of one or another museum, creating a real storytelling of the work.

An essential element both for controlling the authenticity of a production and for monitoring and tracking works that could be forgotten or, perhaps, stolen. Similarly, blockchain technology (explained in the link here) can be useful for the reconstruction and cataloging of literary works, as in the case of archival and library systems.

These are just examples, but the substantial point is that this technology requires a certain amount of abstraction and imagination to open up horizons for its more effective use.

Therefore, we conclude by saying that, with regard to the theme of storytelling, if stories are the currency of the economy and interactions between users (citing the many Stories that today have space on major social media), we find ourselves in an epochal transition phase in which users, once they have tasted the explosive and molecular freedom of the network, return to the need to build more secure and measurable paths of meaning.