Award-winning newspaper The New York Times (NYT) is set to use the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain to ensure the origin of digital files.

Based on information from the NYT’s News Provenance Project website, the newspaper will be utilizing blockchain tech to fight against fake news. The project’s objective is to arrange for a platform that can be suitable for various types of publications.

Assist in Documenting Metadata

Blockchain technology will reportedly assist the project in documenting metadata about audio and video recordings published by news groups.

The New Provenance Project is still in its initial phase and will run until the end of the year. It’s headed by the NYT’s Research and Development team, a group comprised of journalists and technologists. The organization plans to develop a photojournalism-centered proof-of-concept that proves how a blockchain-powered system could function to scale.

The project’s website also stated that the primary phased involved analyzing a blockchain-centered system for registering and sharing metadata about different media, specifically videos and images. The media organization is also doing user experience studies to determine the kind of signals that could help users in identifying the authenticity of the media.

More Than Just Hype

The New York Times noted that blockchain is more than the hype surrounding it. The technology can provide the means to share data between groups in ways they believe are vital for creating and managing the source of digital files. Data that’s stored on blockchain is tamper-proof and copies can be held by several parties.

According to the site, the project will take steps to ensure the results of the project are available to the project.

