Cool talk alert: How the media can use blockchain technology to maybe save itself

Can new technology like blockchain breathe some life into the old institution of the media?

That will be the question reporters Brady Dale and Maria Bustillos will grapple with at a promising-looking talk called “Blockchain + Media: What the hell?” next week at Postlight.

Dale, the previous reporter here at Technical.ly Brooklyn, is now a blockchain reporter for CoinDesk. Bustillos is the editor-in-chief and cofounder of the forthcoming website Popula, a site which will publish on the Ethereum blockchain–based Civil platform. We recently named Civil as one of 10 blockchain startups in Brooklyn you should know.

Dale was one of the earliest mainstream reporters to cover blockchain stories.

“I discovered blockchain when I was doing stories on intellectual property as I wrote about ebooks,” Dale wrote in a message Monday. “I came across Imogen Heap’s Mycelia project, which puts musical rights on smart contracts. Ever since, I have thought blockchain might be the key to people again paying for the media they consume.”

Essentially since the introduction of the internet as a means for distributing news, publishers have been in a state of content entropy. Print papers all across the country have cut staff, online publications sprung up, created a new genre called clickbait, etc., etc. You know the story.

The talk is free and open to the public. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Postlight, located at 101 5th Ave. on Tuesday, Feb. 13.