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CoinMinutes'‍‌‍‍‌ Steps to Foster Accountability in Crypto Journalism​

One‍‌‍‍‌ of your everyday crypto news readings will make you face with exaggerations in titles, statements which cannot be verified, and "analysis" that, in the majority of the cases, are written by the people who even do not disclose their financial interests. The damages are not only limited to market fluctuations - the Cryptocurrency Market industry's trust is also getting decreased, so it becomes difficult for common people to decide to share the trend.

CoinMinutes' Core Accountability ‍‌‍‍‌Principles​

Transparency: We reveal every possible conflict of interest. Our journalists are not allowed to invest in the projects they cover, and our investment policy stipulates a 30-day waiting period after the coverage during which no team member is allowed to invest in any asset he has reported on. Although this rule has driven writers away from us - two quit last quarter due to this policy - we are still firm with it.

Accuracy:‍‌‍‍‌ We prioritize getting the facts right over being the first to break the news. If a technical point is challenged, it must be verified by at least one technical expert before publication. In addition, we require two independent reviewers to confirm the correct usage of complex DeFi protocols or zero-knowledge implementations.

Balance: If the issue is a complex one, it is only fair to examine it from different perspectives. We look for the opinions of others, and especially when dealing with highly controversial lit topics such as Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake or Bitcoin's energy consumption, we look for the opposing views.

Independence: The coverage of our news is never influenced by the relationships formed through advertisements. Our editorial and business teams represent two different departments in our organization. Even when Binance was a major advertiser in March, we decided to publish the investigation into their reserve practices the following month.

Correction Policy: We are not perfect and sometimes we make quite a few mistakes, but when errors occur, we correct them promptly and in an open manner with notices that explain the changes and the reasons for ‍‌‍‍‌them.

These principles are not only some nice words written on our website - they show the way we work every day. They are a work in progress as well; we initially had six principles but later, based on reader feedback, combined our content classification guidelines with our transparency rules because they were overlapping.

Useful Reference: https://inkbunny.net/louisorboryne

Our Editorial Process: Verification and Standards​

Think of a situation when you are checking out a new DeFi protocol like Curve or Uniswap that claims to have groundbreaking yields. Before handing over your money, naturally, you will want to see the credentials of the team, have a look at the code by an auditor, and get a grip on the tokenomics. You will want to be sure that there are no impermanent loss risks, MEV exposure, or slashing conditions. In a similar way, though our verification wasn't always so thorough, we have our verification process.

Verification Methodology​

When there are technical claims, these are the steps we take:

• Independent review of any public code repositories using tools like Soroban and Slither for smart contract analysis
• Talking to experts who have no connection with the project (we are familiar with 17 independent developers)
• Comparing with research done by Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin, and academic sources
• Analyzing‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌ the on-chain data with Dune Analytics, Nansen, or Arkham Intelligence

We do the following to ensure the quality of market information:

• Information is verified by at least two independent sources
• Data is cross-checked between several exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken
• Values only matter if they are put side by side with CoinGecko's and CoinMarketCap's APIs
• Data limitations are always given, especially in the case of low-liquidity ‍‌‍‍‌pairs

Editorial ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌Oversight​

Our editorial process puts these principles to work through review that's way more thorough than when Cryptocurrency Market started three years ago. I sometimes worry we've gone too far - our competitors often publish 3-4 stories in the time it takes us to publish one - but reader feedback suggests they prefer thoroughness over speed.

Before assignment, we check:

Writer expertise and potential conflicts (this killed a story on Ripple last month when our writer disclosed buying XRP)

Story relevance to our audience
Whether we're adding anything new
During development, each piece goes through more steps than most financial publications:
Editor review for clarity and angle
Technical review for accuracy, paying close attention to consensus mechanism claims and smart contract functionality
Fact-checking of all claims and data points against original sources
Legal review for sensitive stories, especially those involving ongoing SEC investigations or regulatory uncertainty

This process keeps changing. When our technical review missed problems in our analysis of Aptos' Move language implementation, we added another peer review step for all complex technical content. That step added 8 hours to our timeline but stopped us from making claims about throughput that turned out to be wrong. We learn from our screw-ups and keep refining things.

What You Can Do​

While‍‌‍‍‌ blockchain technology is still having a big impact on the way we do things, good information is becoming increasingly important. At Coinminutes Crypto, we strive to provide you with reliable coverage- not because we are perfect (we certainly are not), but because we have established ways of catching errors, fixing mistakes when they happen, and becoming better over time.

This is also the case with you. When you see dubious claims about "Ethereum killers" or "staking with guaranteed returns," then you should reject such statements. By demanding that all news sources adhere to higher standards, questioning the claims that are not verified, and giving your support to those outlets that take accuracy seriously, you become part of the solution that crypto needs in terms of media.

Where and when will you see such a crypto headline again that promises revolutionary changes or guaranteed returns - as in the case of the rumors about the SUI partnership last week - and think of what we have discussed? You should raise questions. Verify with several sources. Seek the ‍‌‍‍‌evidence.

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