”ALIS is a social media platform which provides our customers with reliable information from experts in no time. We were inspired by STEEM (https://steem.io) and their billions of evaluations to create a media platform specialized for the Japanese market. Our mission is to filter through the myriad of advertising and stealth marketing campaigns.

Our goal is to provide more reliable information than traditional media outlets. Please read our whitepaper for further information.”

Source: https://alismedia.jp, (emphasis mine)

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Now this is interesting.

For anyone who knows how the mainstream media outlets are forced to operate in Japan, any system by which more reliable and direct journalism might possibly be accessed should be a welcome change.

There is an unspoken media gag law here in Japan which puts even the US MSM to shame for it’s draconian nature.

There is also explicit legislation restricting the press from asking certain questions, or even requesting certain information from high profile groups such as TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) regarding issues such as the crisis at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima.

Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima. SOURCE.

Basically, through peer-to-peer, blockchain-based interaction and voting, ALIS seeks to bring reliable and accurate journalism to the forefront of Japanese news.

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Source: https://alismedia.jp

I am both very excited about, and yet reticent to be too enthusiatic about, the platform, as of yet. Here’s why:

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Reservations:

• Japanese culture already, in a very real sense, tends to favor “mainstream opinion,” even absent the influence of mainstream news media outlets. At least, it seems to me to be so. Thus, I wonder if users of ALIS will upvote and promote truly honest content, or simply continue to call that which challenges current mainstream state and media narrative, “unreliable.” Or in the current American parlance, “fake news.”

• In examining the ALIS homepage and whitepaper, I don’t see coders or programmers listed on the core team roster. Maybe I am overlooking something? Also, the founding members largely seem to have come from the same company—Recruit Career Co., Ltd. This is not a negative thing, per se, but I feel like a deeper look into this company is warranted as well, before fully forming an opinion.
  (EDIT: Sota, the CTO and a co-founder of the project has commented below, correcting my impression that no coders were listed on the team roster. I stand corrected!)

Pros:

• As Steemit is not very well suited for easy onboarding of Japanese users, I am very excited about ALIS, which aims to make this as easy as possible and is designed to be a completely bilingual platform, created intentionally and specifically for the Japanese market.

• The creators—basically fluent in English, and of course, as Japanese natives, fluent in Japanese—are readily available for contact, questions, and queries via myriad avenues. You can ask the founder, Masahiro Yasu, questions directly in the ALIS Telegram chat group. Response time is prompt and impressive!

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Source: https://alismedia.jp

The Token

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The ALIS token (ALIS) is an Ethereum based digital token currently valued at 0.36 USD on coincap.io.

Tokens on the ALIS platform will work in a fashion somewhat similar to Steem on Steemit.com, but the system is designed to be much simpler (no three iterations of the “same coin” as exists on Steemit) and encourage easy onboarding.

To learn more about ALIS, and the ALIS token, check out the ALIS white paper HERE.

What are your thoughts on this new project?

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~KafkA

!

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)