Web3 Is Being Used to Preserve History Threatened by Wars

According to Theresa Kennedy, founder of Black History DAO, blockchain technology allows data to be stored in multiple locations, making it more difficult to destroy.

Blockchain technology is helping to preserve important artifacts from Timbuktu to Ukraine.

“People will solve the storage solutions problem with this system,” Theresa Kennedy, founder of Black History DAO, told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Friday.

According to Kennedy, a self-proclaimed crypto anthropologist, Web3 will allow people to access and contribute to the information added to a blockchain.

The Black History DAO, which is curated by members of its community, aims to address the issue of preserving ancient African texts, which literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. attempted to address years ago, according to Kennedy. After Islamist rebels took control of Timbuktu in 2013 and destroyed many of the manuscripts, that project fell short of its goal of preserving the manuscripts. Some, on the other hand, were saved and are now available online.

Nonetheless, “a lot of money was put into that,” Kennedy said. “However, there was no long-term solution. And the project eventually failed.”

Her organization is attempting to disperse preservation efforts. “Instead of having one entity hold custody or get to it per se, we are creating a system to solve the problem of lack of place,” she explained.

During the same “First Mover” interview, Ukrainian crypto entrepreneur Michael Chobanian discussed his efforts to preserve Ukraine’s history following Russia’s invasion. Blockchain technology is being used to preserve 3D models of “destroyed buildings, sculptures, and cultural heritage” in Ukraine, he said, as his platform attempts to map, store, and transfer data onto the cloud in order to tokenize it.