Blockchain-based journalism platform Civil has shut down, after Civil CEO Matthew Iles said that the effort was unsustainable independently. 

The Civil platform was launched by Iles, Christine Mohan and Matt Coolidge in 2016, with the mission of a blockchain platform for journalists that would ensure fair remuneration and censorship prevention - and fully supported by the public. 

The announcement notes that Civil’s newsrooms, which has always functioned independently, will continue to exist, as will CVL tokens and the Civil Registry - it is just development and management on the part of the team that has come to an end. The Civil Foundation is also “effectively in hibernation for now.”

The project had been struggling for a while, attempting a relaunch in March 2019. The project had managed to attract over 100 organizations to the platform but it failed to be sustainable on its sources of funding. Team members left, and it couldn’t manage partnerships with big news outlets.

The team will now move to work with ConsenSys, which was one of its funders, taking its identity-based solutions to the Ethereum (ETH) focused software company. Iles says,

We are excited to share that the Civil team and technology will join ConsenSys to be a part of these efforts. Although the journey for Civil is over, our new team continues to develop cutting-edge technology that I believe will contribute to building a better internet.