Wikitribune - Competitor or Copycat?

Wikitribune - an actual competitor to Steemit and DECENT or simply a copypaste project with no original ideas?

Jimmy Wales, a co-founder of Wikipedia, has announced the launch of Wikitribune - a news outlet aimed at revolutionizing the news-making industry by putting ordinary people in line with professional journalists. But is the project that unique indeed? 

Not really. There have already been several similar projects implemented, namely Steemit.io and Decent.ch. Both projects are aimed at promoting and rewarding content using the blockchain. In particular, DECENT is striving to put an end to censorship with the help of the blockchain as the system is decentralized and almost impossible to hack. 

Common Idea - Different Means 

At first sight, it seems that Wikitribune is nothing but another news outlet, without any original ideas. But, in fact, the project seems to share common ideas with those such as Steemit and DECENT - to award writers with the help of crowdfunding. But is it enough to claim a revolution? 

Coinidol.com has conducted a survey of experts to find out what they think the new project from Wikipedia actually is. 

DECENT founders showed some enthusiasm, seeing perspectives for partnership with Jimmy Wales’ new project. Matej Boda, the founder, and CMO of DECENT stated to Coinidol: 

“Blockchain Technology could bring more transparency into the Wikitribune project. This is why we consider Wikitribune as a potential partner for DECENT. DECENT in that manner is not an application such as Steemit but a technology layer which can be used by 3rd parties to secure their business with blockchain technology.” 

Matej Michalko, another Founder, and CEO of DECENT seems to agree with his colleague: 

"Wikitribune will help bring journalists and community volunteers together to report fact-based news. We see Wikitribune as a potential partner as their platform can be built on top of DECENT."

No Competition 

While the DECENT founders are quite optimistic about the Wikitribune project and the opportunity for potential partnership, some experts see it as far less enthusiastic than it seems. Kyle Turnbull, a Developer and Witness for Steem stated to Coinidol: 

“Wikitribune is an interesting idea. However, I can't help but feel that it, in some part, is a money grab towards all the fake news hype going on nowadays. It appears to me they are just crowdsourcing income and labour, but then again, from a business standpoint that is smart.

What effect it will have on the crypto community is hard to say. One often can try and perceive cause and effect within the crypto community but I personally can't see it really being disruptive nor incredibly groundbreaking either.” 

Mitchell Loureiro, Steem’s VP of Marketing & a Blockchain Crowdfunding Expert doesn’t see how Wikitribune can compete with Steemit either, as “the value proposition is fundamentally different.” He stated to Coinidol: 

“Steem's value is as a micropayment system that gives contributors the rewards of the attention economy. Steemit.com itself serves as a PoC of this function, but Steemit was never designed to be a news site. It was designed to curate and reward content alone.” 

Idea or Money? 

George Gor, CEO of Coinidol.com, the world blockchain news outlet and co-creator of the other world media, also thinks “Jimmy Wales is trying to repeat the idea of a decentralised media platform that is already working at Steem.io and is being developed by the team at Decent.ch.” 

He stated: 

"The crypto community is very similar in its behavior with members of multi-level marketing teams because any success of any coin is the success of every member of the community. The more members are successful, the more successful is the whole crypto market. I think that Jimmy Wales caught this behaviour of the crypto community. He is trying to use this behaviour to earn money."