Founded by journalist and engineer Arikia Millikan, CTRL+X is a startup building a blockchain-based licensing system to help independent journalists protect, distribute, and monetize their work.
Millikan started working on the idea nearly a decade ago, when she saw firsthand how media companies neglected digital infrastructure and treated editorial content as disposable. With the collapse of legacy media and the rise of AI, she believes protecting original journalistic content is more urgent than ever.
"We're at a fork in society — pre-AI and post-AI — and the value of archival journalistic content is only going to rise," Millikan said. "If we don't enable journalists to protect their assets now, they’ll either rot or be stolen."
The Problem CTRL+X Tackles
As traditional outlets shed staff and shutter archives, independent journalists are left without meaningful ways to preserve or profit from their work. Meanwhile, tech companies and AI models scrape old content for free, without rewarding creators. CTRL+X addresses this by offering journalists direct ownership and control over their archives.
Unlike previous attempts that focused on ads, micro-tipping, or NFTs, CTRL+X uses blockchain to register licenses for each piece of content. The text itself stays encrypted off-chain, while access is managed through token-gated systems. This structure keeps control in the hands of the journalist — not a platform.
"It's the license for the content that's going on-chain," Millikan explained. "The text stays encrypted and protected. Journalists maintain access control, not some platform."
Why Now?
Technological barriers that once kept journalists away from blockchain are falling. Embedded wallets and easier-to-use Web3 tools mean that users no longer need deep crypto expertise to participate. Millikan sees this as the right time to bring CTRL+X to market, offering a "gateway" into Web3 for people who care about ownership and sustainability rather than financial speculation.
How It Works
Journalists first upload and license their archived work, protecting it against deletion or loss. Once archived, they can sell or license their content through the CTRL+X marketplace, receiving micro-payments directly into custodial Web3 wallets.
"We're building the marketplace now — like a better Google Reader," Millikan said. "Every time a reader unlocks an article, a small payment flows back to the journalist. No subscriptions, no platform skimming half the money."
The system is designed to be peer-to-peer. Even if CTRL+X were to shut down, users would still retain control of their content on the blockchain.
"Unlike Apple or any centralized service, Control X is built so the creators keep ownership forever," Millikan said. "Even if we vanish, the content doesn't."
The Vision
Millikan imagines a future where journalists can back up their life's work securely, unlock new revenue streams from their archives, and rebuild a reading ecosystem outside of today's fractured paywalls and ad-driven models.
"I've seen so much abuse in the journalism industry — people working their whole lives just to have their work forgotten or mined for free," she said. "I decided to dedicate my living energy to chipping away at this problem until I die."
CTRL+X just launched its MVP and is now live at CTRLX.world.
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