Coinbase has launched a fact-checking portal to combat “misinformation and mischaracterizations about Coinbase or crypto” being shared online.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has announced the launch of what he’s calling a “Fact-Check” via the company’s blog.
In a May 27 post titled “Announcing Coinbase Fact Check: Decentralizing Truth in the Age of Misinformation,” Armstrong expressed the firm’s desire to combat untrue assertions aimed towards Coinbase and the crypto industry as a whole:
We will use this section of the blog to combat misinformation and mischaracterizations about Coinbase or crypto being shared in the world.”
While the title of Armstrong’s blog post article suggests that at some point in the future the fact-checking will involve some form of decentralization, at present the “fact-checking” simply consists of articles responding to what Coinbase deems as “misinformation”
So in other words, Coinbase intends to put out posts expressing Coinbase’s opinion on matters related to Coinbase and cryptocurrency on the Coinbase blog.
Armstrong claims the blog will come to be seen as a “source of truth”.
“To become a source of truth, companies will increasingly need to be comfortable sharing facts which paint them in a negative light as well. There is nothing like sharing mistakes, to build trust.”
Armstrong is famously averse to dealing with the media, and in 2020 claimed that company leaders are increasingly opting to connect directly with customers as opposed to engaging with mainstream journalists:
“Publishing to our own blog/Twitter/YouTube lets us say what is on our mind and talk to our customers — not get one quote in an otherwise balanced (or sometimes outright mean/snarky) article.”