Verizon : Blockchain for corporate digital communications
Jason Sumner
Verizon is using blockchain’s secure ledger technology to ensure the authenticity of company press releases.
The feature
Press releases in Verizon’s online News Center have a prominent ‘Full Transparency’ badge in the right column, assuring visitors that the company uses blockchain to ‘permanently log all changes made to official releases after publication.’
Verizon introduced the initiative in October 2020. All changes to press releases are logged and timestamped in blockchain’s secure digital ledger, including minor edits, statistical updates and factual corrections. For example, a press release from October 2020 about Verizon’s response to a severe storm that swept across the eastern and southern US has had several updates, which visitors can access via a ‘View Changes’ link in the right column.
The company provides a full explanation of the technology behind the initiative, including a white paper, in the News Center.
Blockchain is closely associated with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but the technology is now being applied widely in business and government organizations.
Verizon’s initiative brings blockchain into corporate online communications as a tool for establishing trust and credibility. The fact that changes to press releases are objectively validated by blockchain and externally visible will be of interest specifically for the media, regulators and policymakers; but the wider message is that the company cares about transparency and openness.
It could also be an interesting first step towards wider uses, as companies try to establish ‘one version of the truth’ in a world of fake news, misinformation and social media storms.
https://www.verizon.com/about/news-center