Yoast founder Joost de Valk and current Yoast CEO Marieke van de Rakt have invested in Dutch startup WordProof.
WordProof is aimed at giving consumers a way to validate information using the Timestamp Ecosystem. This gives readers and search engines a way to quickly find sources for content.
“Joost and Marieke bring valuable expertise that will help us create a universal timestamp standard, assuring that search engines can index the website in the best possible way,” WordProof-founder and CEO Sebastiaan van der Lans said.
Utilizing Yoast’s SEO expertise, the company plans to combat the spread fake news and fraud.
“From a publishing perspective, the ability to prove authorship, to unequivocally prove that you were first with a specific piece of content, is game-changing. With WordProof, unprecedented integrity can be brought to the world of content publishing and e-commerce in an open-source manner, which creates awesome opportunities for social sharing sites and search engines,” said Joost de Valk.
The announcement comes after WordProof received $1 million euros from the European Commission back in July for using blockchain technology as a way to solve social issues.
