coindesk.com
The cryptocurrency industry may be at a disadvantage due to a relative scarcity of entries on Wikipedia, according to a report by crypto communications firm Chainstory.
Only 67 of the 1,000 largest crypto projects by market cap, according to CoinGecko's ranking, have a Wikipedia entry, the report shared with CoinDesk on Tuesday said. Prominent projects, including massively popular perpetuals trading platform Hyperliquid and layer-1 network Sui, which grew out of Meta's aborted digital currency project Diem, are missing from the online encyclopedia,
"Wikipedia’s strict editorial filtering was originally designed to protect the encyclopedia from the sheer volume of noise and fleeting projects during earlier crypto cycles," the report concludes. "However, by continuing to apply these filters today, the platform is no longer just weeding out the static but erasing established, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure from the internet’s most trusted public record."
The lack of Wikipedia coverage is a more acute concern in an era where more users get their information from AI tools like ChatGPT. The report cites data from the AI tracking site Profound, which shows that 7.8% of links to sources on ChatGPT go to Wikipedia, compared to 1.8% and 1.1% to Reddit and Forbes, respectively, in second and third place.
The report also cites data from Trakkr, which shows that Wikipedia accounted for 36% of the top-10 citation links on ChatGPT and 25% of the top 100.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can create a Wikipedia page. The domain for doing so involves passing through tiers of protection and moderation views, according to Chainstory's report. Volunteer reviewer's must check prospective new articles against a number of factors, such as notability, verifiability and reliable sources.
Even when an article clears the process, it can still be deleted by administrators or via a 7-day community vote, which cannot be appealed.
Not helping matters for crypto projects is Wikipedia's guidelines for crypto-centric news organizations (including CoinDesk), which describe them as "overwhelmingly enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies" and "generally unreliable."
Mainstream news outlets that cover crypto, such as Reuters and Bloomberg, are regarded as reliable, the report said,but they are less likely to explore niche areas of the industry, such as liquid staking and perpetual exchanges.