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DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

medium.com

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Re: DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

#2

Post by eindiran »

Can someone explain how exactly DIRT protocol will do moderation? From their site [1] it seems like they do some sort of moderating of crowd-sourced structured data. But this is where I am a bit confused: "DIRT maintains accuracy because every contributor needs to deposit tokens to write data. If the data is correct, it is freely shared. If the data is incorrect, anyone can challenge the data and earn tokens for identifying these inaccurate facts." How is the data flagged as incorrect? Who decides that the original data is wrong and the new data is correct?

Also, given that contributors have to put money up to add information, what incentive do they have to add information in the first place?

[1] https://dirtprotocol.com/

Re: DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

#3

Post by yinyinwu »

eindiran wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how exactly DIRT protocol will do moderation? From their site [1] it seems like they do some sort of moderating of crowd-sourced structured data. But this is where I am a bit confused: "DIRT maintains accuracy because every contributor needs to deposit tokens to write data. If the data is correct, it is freely shared. If the data is incorrect, anyone can challenge the data and earn tokens for iden…

Hi! Thanks for the question. DIRT works well for objective information. In the cryptocurrency use case, this could be the ERC-20 smart contract address for a token or a list of investors for a project.

To flag information as incorrect, you need to take tokens and challenge the data. A challenge starts a vote and anyone in the DIRT network can vote with their tokens on what information is correct. The vote winner and majority voters earn tokens. The vote loser and minority voters are penalized.

We are planning to publish our protocol design in a few weeks with more details.

Re: DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

#6

Post by yinyinwu »

detaro wrote: post #4

"Wikipedia for structured data" seems like an odd tagline when Wikipedia already has a Wikipedia for structured data.

Thanks for the feedback! One of the differences between DIRT and Wikipedia is that we place a higher value on information accuracy. For example, in the cryptocurrency market project teams often list investors and advisors as affiliated with their project when they are not involved. A Wikipedia list of investors would not be sufficient. You want these project teams to have skin in the game and something to lose if they are spreading false information.

That said - the explanation didn't fit as well into a one liner :)

Re: DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

#9

Post by fake-name »

yinyinwu wrote: post #3
eindiran wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how exactly DIRT protocol will do moderation? From their site [1] it seems like they do some sort of moderating of crowd-sourced structured data. But this is where I am a bit confused: "DIRT maintains accuracy because every contributor needs to deposit tokens to write data. If the data is correct, it is freely shared. If the data is incorrect, anyone can challenge the data and earn tokens for iden…

Hi! Thanks for the question. DIRT works well for objective information. In the cryptocurrency use case, this could be the ERC-20 smart contract address for a token or a list of investors for a project. To flag information as incorrect, you need to take tokens and challenge the data. A challenge starts a vote and anyone in the DIRT network can vote with their tokens on what information is correct. The vote winner and…

This doesn't answer the more important question. The issue isn't how do you handle "incorrect" information, it's how do you REMOVE information.

Basically, when someone doxxes someone, and dumps the result onto your system, how to you remove it?

If you don't have a facility for rendering intentionally malicious information impossible to access, your system is fundamentally broken.

Re: DIRT Protocol raises $3M to build a Wikipedia for structured data

#10

Post by otoburb »

yinyinwu wrote: post #3
eindiran wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how exactly DIRT protocol will do moderation? From their site [1] it seems like they do some sort of moderating of crowd-sourced structured data. But this is where I am a bit confused: "DIRT maintains accuracy because every contributor needs to deposit tokens to write data. If the data is correct, it is freely shared. If the data is incorrect, anyone can challenge the data and earn tokens for iden…

Hi! Thanks for the question. DIRT works well for objective information. In the cryptocurrency use case, this could be the ERC-20 smart contract address for a token or a list of investors for a project. To flag information as incorrect, you need to take tokens and challenge the data. A challenge starts a vote and anyone in the DIRT network can vote with their tokens on what information is correct. The vote winner and…

>>To flag information as incorrect, you need to take tokens and challenge the data. A challenge starts a vote and anyone in the DIRT network can vote with their tokens on what information is correct. The vote winner and majority voters earn tokens. The vote loser and minority voters are penalized.

You're right this only works well for objective information or facts. Hence, any articles that hint of an opinion (i.e. pick any Wikipedia editing war topic) would result in a mono-culture dominated by those with the most tokens.

I'm really curious to see how this plays out. Best of luck.

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