If you’re starting to feel like you’re in some kind of a live punk’d version of The Sting (the classic Robert Redford, Paul Newman film for our younger readers) then you are not alone. Put another way, those of you who are beginning to feel that we’re not only living in an “upside-down world,” as some conservative pundits are wont to say, but are living in a world that has fully become one big con job, divorced from truth, then join the crowd.

One of the active ingredients in this false construct of today’s fabricated reality is the notion that if it’s truthful it must be verified on the blockchain. For the uninitiated,

A blockchain is a growing list of records called blocks which are interconnected by utilizing cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a time stamp, and exchange information. Utilizing blockchain we can safely store information over the shared system, where everybody can see but can’t do any alteration. Blockchain will track all information trade called ledger and it uses a distributed system to verify every exchange.

In other words, blockchain consists of fixed bits of information that cannot be altered, that are connected to each other, and that can be verified by everyone. This verification leads to the concept that whether something is truthful can be measured by whether it is ‘verified’ on the blockchain. This of course begs two questions: Whether blockchain verifies the truth of those bits of information or merely their existence? And whether something that is not verified on the blockchain can still be verifiably truthful?

For purposes of this article, now that the reader has a basic understanding of “blockchain” technology, I will also presume that the reader has a basic understanding of “Truth.”

The other thing you need to know for this article is a little bit about Everipedia. Everipedia is sort of like Wikipedia, a self-appointed arbiter of information and truth. The minds behind Everipedia believe they are the fact-checkers who fact check the checkers of facts. In other words, mess with them and you are messing with Absolute Truth.

Here is their tagline on a PR Newswire press update: “About Everipedia: Everipedia was founded in 2014 and is bringing real-world data and knowledge to the blockchain, helping verify facts in an era of misinformation.”

In other words, Everipedia does with data and information what Bitcoin and Ethereum (and others) purport to do with monetary transactions. They provide “cryptographically signed feeds by world-class organizations,” so that a certain set of facts is now irrevocably entered onto a distributed ledger made up of computer code called...drumroll, please...The Blockchain.

That same PR Newswire update contains the announcement that AP and Everipedia were teaming up to cement in blockchain the results of the November 3 election. Now, Everipedia and AP News have announced that they will, once again, be “certifying” a U.S. election on the blockchain. In the context of the Georgia U.S. Senate run-off election on January 5th, the results as determined by the Associated Press News will be entered onto a Chainlink-run Ethereum-based computer code ledger that will forevermore represent the “universally agreed upon” outcome of the aforementioned election.

Here is their statement to this effect, dated December 22nd, 2020:

The United States Senate elections on January 5, 2020 will determine which party controls the United States Senate. Everipedia will be offering AP’s senate race calls in a trusted and transparent manner through the use of oracles. AP will sign the data cryptographically and publish results with their Ethereum Public Key 0x436ee8cb3a351893b77f8b57c9772daec3a96445 and their EOS account associapress. The results published by AP through the OraQle will also be available through our partner Chainlink's oracles.

(Note: Their use of the term “oracles” does NOT refer to the Mega tech company known as Oracle.)

It’s not difficult to understand what’s going on here: “History is written by the victors.” It’s just that, now, in our digital age, those who would control the cryptographic keys and the blockchain platforms are claiming exclusive access not just to history and victory, but to Truth itself.

However, the last I have read regarding both our November 3rd presidential election and Constitutional law is that until January 6th, when state electors are certified (or not) by Congress. Currently, we still only have a presumptive President-elect. But, according to the AP, a member-owned, not-for-profit organization founded in 1846, the 2020 U.S. presidential election was settled during the wee hours of November 4th. Some of the AP’s governing board members include The New York Times Co., Gannett, E.W. Scripps, ESPN, Times Publishing Co. . . . you get the picture.

In other words, I Blockchain, Therefore I Am.

Predictions for the upcoming Senate run-off races in Georgia strongly suggest that it could be weeks after election day until we know who the actual winners are. But that hasn’t stopped AP News and Everipedia, assisted by their Ethereum-using-Chainlink-cohorts, from announcing that they will be declaring the winner ASAP and entering their findings on The Blockchain. Anyone starting to get images of The Wizard from the Wizard of Oz dancing around in your head?  I know I am.

This construction of a metric by which to dictate/impose a reality on the rest of us didn’t originate with the blockchain. It is just the computer geeks’ version of this tried and true penchant of the few wanting to con the rest. Other recent examples are the so-called Steele Dossier used to sway a FISA court in the United States. That con job was nothing more complex than A saying “blue,” then B publishing a story in the “news” saying that A said “blue,” which gave A the (presumptive) authority to take B’s findings of his allegations to the FISA courts saying, see, “B said blue!”

Put the word “blockchain” in front of these con jobs/ sting operations and we are all supposed to act as if now we are treading on hallowed ground? I don’t think so. I’m not buying it.

Truth is still Truth, whether you use a cryptographic key to enshrine it or not. And likewise, Falseness/ Lies are still lies, cryptographic keys or no cryptographic keys.

IMAGE: Computer code by geralt on Pixabay. Pixabay license.