Are those possible use cases?

Hi,
I am a complete novice in the field of blockchain but, observing the news, I see a potential in some areas:

journalism and justice: the debates and propaganda around the evidence of massacre in Ukraine make me think that evidence, testimonies, videos and photos written on a blockchain confirming time, date and geolocation would bring a lot of transparency to media and judges. Wouldn’t they? Is that technically possible?

Diplomacy and industry: some countries accuse other countries of spying. But without real evidence. The accusing countries could voluntarily hide some false information in their data. So, if these “mistakes” are taken over by other countries, it will prove that the data was stolen (from them), and not found legally. (This is the same principle as for geographical maps, which usually contain small mistakes to be able to unmask illegal copies). To prove that this information is not declared false a posteriori (as an intentional mistake to spot spies) , just to accuse another country, but considered false from the moment it was created, it must not be modifiable at all. I think that a blockchain could be efficient for that. As a kind of blockchain-bailiff? Or am I just dreaming?

Do you think there is potential in these areas that Cardano could exploit? Are there already projects in this area?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

Hey ALONF,

Welcome to the world of blockchain! You’re thoughts here are great ones and you’re right in thinking that we can use the blockchain as a notary in the sense of recording facts, often called proof-of-existence or proof-of-fact.

Writing such information about a particular video, photo or other piece of evidence to the blockchain can certainly be done and used to help its transparency and legitimacy. The issue is then ensuring that the blockchain reference only refers to the original unedited version of the media and cannot be used to refer to edited versions of media. The media itself cannot be stored on the blockchain, the files are simply too large, so there needs to be a system in place to securely store the files being referenced so that cannot be edit/changed to falsify information.

With regarding to the spying/stealing of documents it could be used to verify certain things in documents, however Cardano is a public blockchain and all information stored on it is public, such tools used by governments may be better stored on a private blockchain where the evidence is released as needed i.e. upon the stealing or falsification of secret documents.

Regarding projects that are already doing something like what you mentioned there are a few and you can find them here: Search 510 Cardano Projects, Stake Pools, Skillsets, and Organizations..

Again welcome to Cardano and the world of blockchains and all its possibilities!

Hi Welshie-BOC,
thank you a lot for taking the time to explain me all of this. I do think proof-of-fact will be a key mechanism in the future. I’ll have a closer look at the existing projects you’ve mentioned.