He news that Ian Allison and Tracy Wang are joint beneficiaries of a Polk Awardone of journalism's most prestigious, for three November scoops that led to the collapse of the FTX empire is a source of immense pride for all of us at CoinDesk.
This is a milestone, not just for CoinDesk, but for the crypto media in general. It underscores the role that strong professional journalism can play in bringing transparency to the crypto industry, too often opaque and sadly riddled with scams.
As put by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Nick Baker and Executive Editor Marc Hochstein your wording of the three award-winning stories (Ian's initial scoop in Alameda's balance sheet, its Follow up about the probability of Binance withdrawing its ransom and tracy's bomb on CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's โroommate cabalโ who ran FTX): โThere is little precedent in the history of journalism for a story that made such an impact and did it so quickly.โ
It's painful to see so many FTX victims in the aftermath of what Ian and Tracy found out. But the reality is that eventually it would have been exposed. That it was not before is, in fact, the problem. That's why a professional and independent outlet is vital for an industry with trust issues.
But a technical background is needed to cover this complex topic adequately. Just as bankers exploited a lack of understanding of collateralized debt obligations prior to 2008, crypto scammers hide behind the techno-fog. That can be a challenge for journalists unfamiliar with the technology. Which is why some blanket coverage of Bankman-Fried left a lot to be desired.
Here, CoinDesk is unique. Sure, there are quality crypto reporters in the mainstream media as well as the crypto press, but no outlet is as deep banked as ours. We combine the best of mainstream and crypto journalism.
We're led by Editor-in-Chief Kevin Reynolds in Editorial, who had a storied 23-year career at Bloomberg, and by Joanne Po, Executive Producer and Head of Multimedia, who led the TV and digital media teams at CNBC, The Wall Street . Magazine and Fox Digital. We have other senior editors with decades of newsroom experience. Just as importantly, we employ many scoop-hungry cryptonative reporters, some fresh out of school, others older, with a deep and personal understanding of technology and its opportunities and challenges.
This two-way approach is more important than ever. Contrary to its critics, cryptocurrencies are not going anywhere. But, clearly, it needs to be improved, both in the technical aspect and in the regulatory framework. If it is to live up to its transformative potential, it is vital that cryptocurrency problems are exposed, so solutions can be developed iteratively, and promising projects get the attention they deserve.
It has become popular in some crypto circles to argue that this should be left to lone "citizen journalists" on Twitter. But while there is definitely a place for information crowdsourcing happening on social media, Ian and Tracy's work is Exhibit A in the case of why structured, independent news organizations like CoinDesk remain vital.
Until someone comes up with something betterโperhaps, one day, a reliable and workable decentralized system for finding facts and holding bad actors accountableโthere is no substitute for training or the integrated principles of professional journalism that reporters follow. they develop trust with sources, they report. accurately and work with integrity.
Do we occasionally get things wrong? Sure. But there is a commitment, day after day, to strive to be right, correct and promptly disclose our mistakes and fight for objectivity and transparency. The best way to deal with conspiracy theorists who blindly claim that we are serving the interests of some puppeteer is to point to the proof in our pudding.
So today is not only a day to celebrate Ian and Tracy and their publisher, Nick Baker, but every single person at CoinDesk. They have all contributed to a workplace that enables and encourages our journalists to meet these high standards, one of the results being this much-deserved accolade. It is also a day to recognize why it is so important that the broader crypto industry support media institutions like CoinDesk that abide by these principles.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
