Is it true that UFOs have been sighted?

Fountain tells you the real story.

Decentralised
truth seeking.

The internet has been unable to solve the problem of truth.

Fountain is a decentralised protocol for finding consensus on truth.

You can use Fountain to fact-check news, and to incentivise discovery, research and sharing of any knowledge. It is a tool to challenge misinformation.

Anyone can submit claims to the Fountain for fact-checking.

Our mission.

Our mission is to accelerate the search for truth.

The human effort to build knowledge will be decentralised and accessible to all.

Our principles are:
  • Freedom of speech and of the press.
  • Respect for civil and open debate.
  • Commitment to search for objective truth.

How it works.

  1. A claim is published on-chain, with a bounty.
  2. Users classify the claim by staking tokens on one of the three options:
    True
    Unproven
    False
  3. The tokens stay locked until the one option sustains a majority, therefore incentivising users to share evidence and reasoning to reach a consensus.
  4. The claim is closed and the bounty is paid to those who selected the winning option.
  5. Anyone can see the result, and also read the evidence and reasoning to make up their own mind.

Frequently Asked
Questions

  • Who decides what is factual?

    The users of Fountain select an answer using an incentivised staking process described in the Whitepaper. The outcome of this process is accepted as a consensus of what the users of the network believe. Importantly, you shouldn't just blindly believe this as unquestionable. You should make up your own mind. This is why its so important that the evidence and reasoning is published as part of the process.

  • What does Fountain cost?

    There are currently no fees for using Fountain, except for the gas costs of Optimistic Ethereum. The fee rate is currently set to 0% with the intention of setting it in the future in order to fund costs of the project and other related public goods.

  • Why does it require money to participate?

    Having these incentives is good because it means users have something at stake. This motivates good behaviour, punishes bad behaviour, and incentivises users to reach a truthful consensus.

    If users were allowed to vote without "putting their money with their mouth is", then the system could be easily manipulated.

  • How is this different to a majority poll?

    Polls can't be relied on to determine truth because there's no penalty for being wrong. It is also possible that the majority is wrong. With an token system, users have value at stake which incentivises careful thought and honest behaviour. It also takes into account the varying levels of confidence in belief.

  • Is there a Fountain token?

    There is currently no Fountain token.

  • Why blockchain?

    Blockchain provides a decentralised and transparent mechanism to define an incentivised voting mechanism. This is done using an Ethereum smart contract.

  • What about statements which are factually correct but are intended to deceive?

    The Fountain protocol is designed to rate claims on a factual basis. We want to reach consensus on facts rather than judgements of intent, as knowledge of intent can often be difficult or impossible to prove.

Find the truth.