News Take Episode 106: Tapping Into the Potential of Blockchain for News Publishers with Julien Genestoux

By Staff June 7, 2022

Guest: Julien Genestoux, founder and CEO, Unlock

“I think right now the web is ‘sick’ of its business model, from the fact that we monetize everything for attention. … What blockchain brings us is actually the ability to think about alternative business models, the ability to think about things in other ways, to say OK, who owns what piece of content, how it is owned, who gets access to what, and do that in a transparent protocol way rather than a platform-owned way.”

– Julien Genestoux, Unlock

What is blockchain and how do NFTs work? How can news publishers use blockchain to grow revenue? What would a membership model based on NFTs look like, and what benefits could it offer over the traditional advertising revenue model? What is Web3 and why do we need it?

On this edition of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with founder and CEO of Unlock, Julien Genestoux, about the potential opportunities and uses of blockchain technology by news publishers. In this candid discussion that takes a critical look at the current state of the Web, Julien reviews the basics of blockchain and why it could offer a more secure and more exciting alternative to the attention-based, platform-driven experiences found on today’s Web. He then provides a look at what lies beyond the initial applications, to the potential of blockchain specifically for news publishers, for purposes such as monetizing content and using NFTs in membership models.

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Speaker bio

Julien Genestoux is founder and CEO of Unlock, an access control protocol built on a blockchain that enables creators to monetize their content or software without relying on a middleman. He describes himself as an entrepreneur, unconditional web advocate, and a hacker. He has built two profitable start-ups, one of which was Superfeedr, which became one of the leading real-time web APIs and was later acquired by Medium. At Medium, he led the company’s SEO effort and quadrupled the share of traffic it receives from search. He co-authored the W3C WebSub protocol and spoke at numerous international conferences and events. He talks about NFTs, Web3, crypto and the Open Web.