Decentralised Journalism Institute: building decentralised media verification and governance on Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

A pioneering decentralised platform for 21st century collective journalism, verification and governance. The template for future media houses, research bodies and censorship-resistant businesses.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Completely open source. Any not-for-profit organisation or media outlet will be able to use what we develop for governance of their own media platform, as well as applying to join the DJI. The code and all content will be Open Source.

[METADATA] Horizons

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Executive Summary

DJI repurposes blockchain technology to provide a hybrid solution for safe and decentralised disclosure governance as well as fact-checking and collective risk assessment tool/platform. Seeking funding for Phase 1;

• A feasibility study;
• To build and test an MVP platform for disclosures;
• To establish a decentralised governance and growth structure;
• To pilot in Afghanistan within an existing network of journalists 

The Why: What is the Problem? 

“I spent four years working undercover as a journalist in Iran, and another three years after that providing guidance to journalists in Afghanistan. I interact with whistleblowers in my current job, and I’m always struggling to find a way to communicate with them securely, and also to communicate securely with colleagues while working to verify and edit the information. The second thing is that, as an individual or a tiny news organization, I don’t always feel 100% confident publishing sensitive information once it is disclosed, because I do not always have the best knowledge of how to fact-check it. I cannot turn to colleagues or bigger media organizations for help without exposing the source or risking an untimely leak of the information itself.”

Margherita H, Founder, Digital Journalism Institute, Journalist/Editor

The problem in a nutshell:

• There is no collective, decentralised fact-checking platform where investigative journalists, lawyers and activists can decide together how to work with disclosures from repressive media environments and how to use their experience to assess the strength of sources. For existing whistleblower platforms, decision-making and management is not collective and decentralised to ensure long-term transparency and trust. There is no tool for fact-checkers and transparency advocates to collectively make decisions about how disclosures are sourced, verified and governed
• Investigative journalists and transparency advocates do not have a platform to communicate safely with whistleblowers and to assess, collaborate on and publish key disclosures from whistleblowers worldwide
• Trust is the biggest issue in information today
• Working on sensitive stories along or as part of a small mechanism can be daunting, overwhelming and dangerous
• Few whistleblower platforms deploy the opportunities for anonymity, governance and safe communication afforded by cheap and fast blockchain technology
• Storing sensitive data on centralised servers is dangerous 
• Handling large data dumps in multiple languages can be daunting for a single journalist and can mean stories are abandoned or overlooked

THE SOLUTION

• The Decentralised Journalism Institute (DJI) is a decentralized whistleblowing platform, data storage and governance mechanism for activists and journalists to verify whistleblower disclosures, media stories or data dumps.The USP is the use of blockchain smart contracts for collective governance and administration, multi-signatures to approve disclosures and a DAO for governance. DAO community and multi-sig tools built and governed on summon.io and Yoroi
• The DAO initially brings together six experienced and ‘vetted’ investigative journalists who all trust each other and bring networks and experience in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America. More journalists, lawyers, advocates, media outlets, academics, whistleblowers and supporters can join with time
• The Decentralised Journalism Institute (DJI) is run as a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO). The DAO will have six founding members, all investigative journalists from around the world. Each member will be able to vote on acceptance and vetting of new DAO members, how to proceed with all Initial Reports on Disclosures, and other key governance decisions. Membership can scale. 
• DJI is governed by a decentralized DAO structure on Cardano. Core members are vetted global editors, journalists, whistleblowing specialists and media lawyers who collectively constitute the verification department and perform management and governance duties. 
• Organisations with any fact-checking need could use DJI’s open source platform to collectively assess and verify data
• All key interactions between Foundation/User and Foundation DAO members on the blockchain will need to be approved by the user with their wallet (e.g. uploads, messages, data transfers etc). This avoids reliance on any sms/mobile networks, reducing the option of disclosures being tracked or monitored and thus strengthening their confidence in the disclosure mechanism’s security apparatus

THE PROJECT

We seek to create a low-profile DAO of investigative journalists who source and share disclosures via the DJI platform. The DAO is run by journalists in a decentralised governance structure using voting rights on blockchain. DJI adds an added layer of security and decentralisation to any existing ‘whistleblower platforms’ by ensuring all data and communication transfers need to be approved by the recipient’s wallet signature. This ensures that malicious forces, hackers or totalitarian state agents cannot access sensitive information and protects the data, which is stored on a decentralised network. 

Process For Sources/Disclosers: A DAO member communicates with a source, preferably offline. He/she then receives a disclosure via ToR – a customised, self-deleting, VPN-powered Global Leaks app or equivalent. The app has a plugin to a pre-funded wallet. Any files added to the app by the source are automatically added to a new batch on a decentralised server. The source must sign transactions with the app. The source can add any relevant info or additional docs to the batch. After finishing the upload, all documents are deleted on the source’s phone, including the app. Should the source want to add more detail, they will have to reinstall the app. 

All Communications: A parallel messenger, featuring additional encryption and security considerations, will be considered by the founding team. The architecture could be based on Signal and/or Tox and/or Briar and/or Ricochet Refresh, although accounts would be linked to a blockchain wallet and not a phone number to ensure adequate anonymity and security. 

Process For the DAO/Foundation/Journalists: 

STEP1: Data Review

The Foundation is notified of a New Batch. If data is attached, the rotating Foundation President assigns an Initial Report to a DAO member. The first step after receiving the disclosure is for a DAO member to write the Initial Report. Initial Reports are assigned on a revolving basis to each DAO member to produce. If a DAO member does not understand the language of the disclosure, then responsibilities for the Initial Report are reassigned to the next DAO member, until a native language speaker is found. If a native speaker cannot be found, the disclosure is rejected.

This is a pre-designed template in which the DAO member:

· Summarises the disclosure in English for other DAO members

· Raises any doubts, concerns or questions about the material

· Highlights DAO members’ first observations, thorough cross-checking, experience or intuition

· Identifies any key steps or open questions for further fact-checking

STEP 2: The Vote

DAO members are then invited to vote on the Initial Report. If DAO members vote against sharing the material with a preferred media partner, then the disclosure ends there. If they approve sharing, then a preferred media partner is contacted to conduct further fact-checking and to arrange publication. AT NO POINT is the preferred media partner placed in touch with the whistleblower. 

THE PILOT

DJI will first conduct an in depth feasibility study in Afghanistan and Iran. This Pilot Project will ensure we can test, revise and strengthen the tech in two totalitarian states. Margherita and Aryan have extensive networks in both countries. Journalists from within these networks will initially source disclosures.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Benefits to the Cardano ecosystem 

• Trustless and transparent solutions on Cardano for 21st journalism and sensitive research needs 
• Decentralised, collective fact-checking and disclosure verification 
• A scalable template for decentralised journalism and research globally 
• Censorship resistant tool built on Cardano
• Working with known DAO on Cardano
• Can incorporate decentralised digital identity and storage solutions on Cardano
• Aggregates a set of Cardano tools for a new use case (journalism): Yoroi, Summon, etc
• Strengthens Cardano’s reputation as a verification tool 
• PR: project to be presented to 100s of potential global clients at 2025 and/or 2026 Perugia Festival of Journalism 
• Results to be widely shared with media

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

• Proposers have extensive networks of investigative journalists worldwide. This will inform the design and scale of the platform and DAO membership
• Proposers are part of other existing projects where DJI can be piloted. Donors of those projects could later help scale DJI’s ‘proof of concept’ 
• Founding members understand risks to journalists and need for collective decentralised journalism from experience
• Proposers are experienced Afghan exiles journalists with extensive networks to soft launch and pilot the project in Afghanistan, run by a highly repressive regime 
• Team will rely on sourcing experienced Cardano developers and frontend builders 
• 80+ years combined team experience across multiple sectors: investigative journalism, business, tech, communications, marketing, data analysis
• Experienced project manager and CTO

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Title: Feasibility study and tech architecture

Outputs

Feasibility study. 

• What are the paint points experienced by whistleblowers and investigative journalists when they communicate?
• What are the key security considerations?
• How can members be better and safely incorporated without eroding trust? 
• What existing solutions can be integrated? 
• How can the tech safely be tested?
• How should the DAO function and what will be its constitution?
• What will be the complete tech architecture for the MVP

Tech Architecture: Google Doc

Answers from poll with 6 target journalist/activists 

Acceptance criteria

• Feasibility study: addresses the above questions via X5 interviews and/or survey with key journalists and or stakeholders involved with whistleblowers and/or sensitive data dumps
• Tech Architecture: x2 page outline of core tech plan.
• Poll questions and redacted overview of answers can be viewed by community in a report 

Evidence of Milestone completion

• Link to feasibility study in Google Doc
• Link to poll questions in Google Forms, as well as overview of report in Google Docs
• Link to Tech Architecture in Google Doc

Expected timeline for the delivery

 2 months 

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Milestone 2

Title: MVP and DAO constitution

Outputs

Milestone 2 includes the following key activities:

• Working MVP with Demo
• DAO Constitution
• Recruitment of x6 Initial DAO Members. 
• Vetting and/or ‘Observer’ status for x3 more potential members 
• Creation of promotional, vetting and recruitment processes for new members 
• Digital Journalism Institute governance infrastructure is established using existing open source tools like Global Leaks, coupled with Cardano dApps like Summon and meshjs
• Initial Report function works

Acceptance criteria

• MVP is functional on X testnet. Purpose built frontend based on Global Leaks open source architecture. Incorporates Summon and Yoroi (both Cardano) for governance 
• Source and Foundation members can sign transactions with wallet. 
• Source can make safe uploads
• Initial Report and messenger functions are secured and functional
• DAO set up and governs all data transfers and governance issues
• DAO Constitution

Evidence of Milestone Completion

• Login details to MVP for PC reviewers to test 
• Link to video demo of governance overview, with proof of wallet-signing to approve DJI decision-making and Initisk Report functionality 
• Link to Google Doc template of initial report
• Link to documentation of DAO set-up process
• Link to DJI constitution in Google Doc

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 7

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Title: Pilot in Afghanistan

Outputs

 Three exiled Afghan journalists in exile document their work using DJI to reach out safely to contacts in Afghanistan to source disclosures about/under the Taliban regime

• These experiences, project trials, are documented in Initial Reports using a specific DAO methodology 
• The final results are outlined in a White Paper 

Acceptance criteria

• Proof of engagement of Afghan journalists 
• Documentation of use of DJI platform 
• DJI white paper 
• X2 first published stories in partnership with media house 

Evidence of Milestone Completion

• Link to invoices and/or contracts and Google Doc (Inc brief overview of vetting process) outlining roles and work achieved of x3 vetted Afghan journalists 
• Link to Screen recordings of DJI in use on-the job
• Link to DJI white paper (publication platform will be confirmed later)

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 11

Final Milestone: Final Milestone reporting

Output

Close-out report to community

Acceptance criteria

Report can be accessed by wider community

Evidence of milestone completion

Link is available publicly as good doc

Expected timeline for the delivery

Month 12

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

THE TEAM:

Margherita H, Project Director, DAO Founder

Markgherita T (NB: name changed for security reasons - to be provided of course to Project Catalyst team if proposal is successful :-)) was an undercover Guardian journalist in Iran from 2011 to 2015. She was later an editor on Afghan investigative dossiers for three years. She is the co-founder of an investigative media house focused on Iran. 

Feridoon Aryan: Project Manager and Editor

Fareedoone was a journalist in Afghanistan for fifteen years, working for local and international media clients such as CNN, BBC, Reuters and Tolo, until he was forced to flee Afghanistan i9n 2021. He now lives in Germany. 

Alex Macbeth and Gabriel Von Roda, Tech consultants

Alex and Gabriel are the co-founders of SDG-focused blockchain consultancy firm Innofund. They have experience building blockchain products on Cardano, and are co-founders of the Blockchain4Good summit. They will assist with the tech architecture and MVP build.

Chahat Bhateja, Chief Smart Contract Engineer

Chahat is a smart contract engineer with experience working in half a dozen blockchain ecosystems, including Algorand and Cardano.

Vikash Saini, Head of UI/UX

Vikash brings a decade of experience working on apps and frontend development. He is currently the lead designer with Webmob Solutions.

Amit Walia, Senior Full Tech Stack Developer

Amit has overseen dozens of small and large projects in the tech space as a senior developer and project manager

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Milestone 1: ADA35000

Title: Feasibility study

Research Staff: 15K (journalism side)

Admin staff: 5K (running the project)

Admin costs: 3K (company expenses)

Tech and product design team costs: 12K (product & dev and third party fees)

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Milestone 2: ADA65000

Title: MVP and DAO constitution 

Tech team: 35K (salaries and third party fees)

Admin and legal: 10K (company expenses and legal)

Broader team: 20K (journalism side salaries)

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Milestone 3: ADA27000

Title: Pilot in Afghanistan

Tech bug bounty programme: 5K (product & dev)

Tech team: 5K (product & dev)

Admin: 5K (company expenses & travel)

Team: 12K (journalism side salaries)

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Final Milestone: 22500 ADA

Title: Close-out report to community and publicity events 

Admin: 2.5K (company expenses & travel)

Sustainability and marketing plan: 2.5K (marketing material production)

Team: 17.5K (journalism side salaries)

TOTAL: ADA149500

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

• Extends Cardano specialism as a Blockchain for verification in a new sector 
• Scarcity of decentralised open source media outfits means it is ripe for scale 
• Pioneering new use case that can be scaled to many sectors: media, civil society, research, community etc
• 40 years of journalism experience in repressive regimes applied on Cardano
• Strengthen spirit of censorship free technology
• Project will be piloted/embedded within other existing funded projects, meaning the MVP will likely get partners and further funding elsewhere, should Project Catalyst F13 approve it