Our main goal at DNN is to address fake and sensationalized news by holding everyone in the news dissemination process accountable. In order to cultivate accountability, we’re leveraging on blockchain technology and digital currencies to ensure transparency and incentivize active participation in the media landscape. In addition, we’re also counting on a team of professional and academic advisors for their infinite industry knowledge and insightful ideas.

As we continue to work towards our goals, we’re eager to share their wisdom with you. Join us every Thursday for an in-depth Q&A with one of our talented DNN advisors, and get to know some of the visionaries behind the DNN platform.

This week, we’re chatting with Rebecca Rachmany, CEO at Gangly Sister LLC, a new media company with the mission of transforming how girls are portrayed in the media.

Q: How did you first come across the Decentralized News Network? What were your initial thoughts on the project and how have they changed since coming on board the DNN team?

A: I was researching a book on identity, and I was introduced to the DNN team through one of their partners. It turns out nothing they said on identity was relevant to the author, but I read the whitepaper and sent feedback, because I’ve been interested in decentralized government and the next evolution of democracy, and because I have some journalism experience.

As an industry, we are dealing with the issue of governance, specifically self-governance and self-regulation. We want to implement fairer and wiser voting systems, for example. But as soon as you think about the issue of decision-making, whether that’s on the individual or group level, you realize that the fundamental ingredient for decision making is facts. How can we ever create wiser decisions if we can’t even agree on what’s factual? The current political system has polarized people to the point that they are unable to discern opinion from fact. It’s impossible to make an appropriate decision without facts. From this perspective, what DNN is trying to do is fundamental to democracy and the future of humanity as a whole. The founders of today’s democracies recognize the importance of the press and protect it in a number of ways. And yet, if you look at the history of journalism, it’s always been distorted in one way or another. What the DNN team is attempting to do is create a verifiable system where everyone can stop arguing about the facts and start leveraging them for the betterment of themselves, their communities, and the world as a whole.

Rebecca Rachmany, CEO at Gangly Sister LLC.

Q: What is your specific area of influence on the DNN project?

A: One of my main roles is to listen to Samit rant about how bonkers the ICO market is so he can let off a little steam. Dondrey usually listens in and laughs a lot during those sessions, because the market truly is bonkers. But seriously, I think most of what I do with them is consider hard problems, not on the algorithmic side, but in a variety of other areas. Because I’m a communications expert, usually the guys consult with me when they are having trouble conveying a message. If you’ve ever spoken to these guys, you know that they are extremely articulate. So, actually, when they are having trouble conveying a message it usually turns out that there is some underlying logic that isn’t working. We’ve discussed everything from tokenomics to how to include first-hand news accounts reliably, through what it is that constitutes “news.”

Q: When and how did you originally begin learning about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies? What elements of DNN’s project, from a blockchain/crypto perspective, are most exciting to you?

A: I only started looking at blockchain seriously about a year ago, despite the fact that I know a lot about database technology. Or maybe because I know a lot about database technology. “How exciting could a new database be?” I asked myself.

What most excites me from a crypto perspective is the idea that we can create ecosystems of value without traditional monetary expression. I like the idea that we can reward people in new ways and we can reward people for positive contributions. Today, media rewards are flipped on their heads. You get more money and more credit when you create sensationalist and fake news. News has become a slave to advertising. I’m excited that cryptocurrency creates a parallel reward system. Some people believe that tokens will become a kind of bartering system. It’s fascinating to think that different communities can create their own assets that have some kind of value in the world. It might not add up to monetary value as we know it today, but it’s obvious that we value the truth, and having a kind of a truth-token that measures someone’s reliability is extremely interesting. I wrote a guest blog for R-Block about how reputation is our most important professional asset. Our reputation determines everything in our personal and professional lives. Imagine a world when I can prove my truthfulness over time through a kind of a scoring system. Would that be something I could leverage professionally? How about personally? “Look at my truth score, honey. If I say I didn’t eat that last slice of cake, the statistics show that has an 89.2 percent chance of being true!”

Q: Considering both the media and tech industries consist of predominantly male orientated workforces, why is it important to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of women in media? More specifically, how will progress in this realm impact gender norms in society more broadly?

A: It’s important to challenge every stereotype. As humans, we don’t fit into some kind of neat and clean category. But I want to address your second question about gender norms. Look, we are talking about the truth here, so forgive me if I don’t mince words. You use the term “gender norms.” There is nothing normal about how women are treated in our society. Women are portrayed as objects to be displayed, acquired, utilized, or violated. That’s not something you will ever hear me call a “norm.” The euphemism you used, that’s a perfect example of how our vocabulary hides the truth. You want me to talk about the horrifying discrimination against half the human race and you say “impact gender norms.” We can’t tell the truth when we are being nice. I hope that by having straight, truthful news, we’ll be able to just have straight, truthful conversations in all areas of our lives. I hope we will eliminate the press biases where some acts are called mass murder and some are called terrorism, based on the ethnicity of the person committing the crime. As a society, we need to stop a lot of the political correctness and just call a spade a spade.