The development of media has accelerated dramatically during the last 120 years. The first big revolution of the media was the radio, as it made instant communication possible. With the emergence of TV, information became visible. Following the media, the way we perceive and produce information changed dramatically. As H.M. McLuhan said, “the media is the message” — and he couldn’t have put it better.

Once the TV won all people’s hearts, it opened Pandora’s box of all kinds of media manipulation. From direct — like advertising and propaganda — to indirect — like fake news, manipulations with images and videos. These phenomena became one of the key features of the cold war period, and they keep going until now. No wonder that Barry Levinson’s “Wag the Dog” got two “Oscars” and three “Golden Globes”.

However, time is relentless, and now the TV is already outdated. The internet, which was, by the way, predicted by H.M. McLuhan in the 1960s, is the new media world dominator. In the early 2000s, everybody became a newsmaker thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, so that user generated content (UGC) evolved. You could have expected that this would lead to more transparency and honesty in the media. In some sense, this is true, but there are two sides of this coin.

Nobody moderates UGC. Nobody checks the facts. As against traditional media, the piece of news generated by a regular person doesn’t have to pass an editor before reaching general public. Anyone can publish anything, in the worst sense of these words. Fraudulent and dishonest information have become an integral part of our media consumption.

The problem of deceptive information becomes utterly urgent when it comes to money. Here comes the innovation of the decade: the blockchain. With the invention of the decentralized technology, a completely new market emerged. The ICO — initial coin offering — allows any person to raise funds for his/her project. On the other side, any person can now become an investor and receive the project’s “digital assets” (tokens) by taking part in the crowdsale.

One of the key features of this new market is its poor regulation. Since anyone can invest in anything, no one is responsible for the security of this investment. No wonder that a lot of scam projects emerged very soon. As a natural consequence, the blockchain community invented self-regulation mechanisms: escrow agents, trust criteria, etc. Nevertheless, the number of scams continues to rise with the growth of the market. The information about people and projects is dispersed and often cannot be verified. Dishonest articles, fake news and other manipulative media activities have become part of the blockchain world’s everyday life.

The blockchain community has a fascinating ability of self-regulation. When there is a problem, someone finds a solution and launches a corresponding project. This is exactly the case of CLOUT.

CLOUT is a project that aims to solve the problem of dishonest information in the blockchain world. The blockchain based platform allows users to share and evaluate content. When someone posts a piece of news, other users can approve or disapprove it, in case that the information is inaccurate or misleading. This feedback is reflected in the user’s rating. Consequently, authors that post fraudulent information, will be penalized by the community and the platform. On the contrary, people that post useful stuff will be rewarded. Besides, CLOUT users will be able to chat with each other, comment on posts and enjoy other typical social media activities. This makes CLOUT a one-stop-shop for all information related to the blockchain and cryptocurrency market and, most important, a community self-regulation tool.

The blockchain technology makes the process transparent and advantageous for honest content creators. All users will be rewarded in CLC, CLOUT’s daughter token, based on quality of platform interaction. Posting, commenting, upvoting and being a part of the “crowd wisdom voting polls” all earn users CLC. This system ensures that only high quality posts, comments, and ICO’s rise to the forefront of the platform. CLC is the fuel that runs the Network, CLOUT tokens are what generate CLC.

Behind CLOUT is a star-pledged team of founders and advisors. Sean Kirtz, Founder and President, is a renowned entrepreneur and fintech solution architect. He has solid experience in assessing and managing blockchain based projects and ICOs. One of the key founders, Henry Wang, is a prominent person in the blockchain business. He is Founder of International Blockchain Application Federation. The recent venture of Henry Wang, Smart Mesh, has recently sold out 99% of the tokens offered for ICO. Another dominant name is that of CLOUT’s Advisor, David Cohen, one of the pioneers of the decentralized technology. David was a member during the IOTA Token Cryptocurrency launch, which broke all previous records reaching an astounding $1.7 billion dollar market cap. Asian markets seem to be a priority for CLOUT: Jay Kim, CEO and Founder of ICO Schedule, is an Advisor as well.

CLOUT’s team is remarkable for being truly international, since it is formed by professionals from different states and even continents. The team and advisory board features members from the U.S., Europe, Australia, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and China.

The project was started from scratch just a few months ago but rocketed up thanks to the team’s efforts. CLOUT has launched its ICO on the 17th of November and is now progressing with platform development. The project is to be listed on one of the world’s major exchanges in February 2018.

The initiative of CLOUT shows a great example of the market’s community self-regulation. It does not only stand for a media for all crypto enthusiasts regardless their experience, but provides for highly important mechanisms, such as information verification and ratings. With the help of blockchain technology, the CLOUT team is building a new type of media, combining three major trends: decentralization, social media and user generated content. This might be the first project of the absolutely new type of media, that might some day — in fact, very soon — lead to another leap in the media technology. Just like TV and the internet in the early days.