These days, virtually every company worth their stock is affixing the B buzz word to either their name, mission or vision statement. Not surprising, considering never before has a phenomenon or idea gone from less than a dollar to over $13,000 as at today’s writing.
Everyday, we wake up to a new blockchain company springing up with some use case guaranteed to save the world. Governments too are voicing out their plans for a national cryptocurrency, like the adventurous Estonia or the oil-backed Venezuela.
Private, dying companies are holding on to cryptocurrency as a literal lifesaver. The latest rescue mission was done on Kodak whose stock price miraculously rose by 60% just after the almost dying photography company announced it was issuing its own cryptocurrency.
KodakCoin is a coin specifically designed for photographers. That it was positively received is obvious, considering the photography company’s stock (KODK) spontaneously shot up to $5.02 as at today’s writing.
Photographers registered on KodakOne, a blockchain powered project, will be able to conduct transactions on the platform using KodakCoins. KodakOne is a digital distributed ledger containing records of ownership rights of a photographer’s work. The platform makes it easy to register and license both new and old work while tracking ownership. In the press release issued by Kodak, the company stated that the aim of KodakCoin and KodakOne is to “empower photographers and agencies to take greater control of image rights management.”
Just visualize this as your new photography marketplace where each digital property is accounted for on a secure platform. Although, this is not a novel idea, as the Ethereum blockchain got congested couple of weeks ago due to the launch of an artwork & illustration game cryptocurrency called Crypto Kitties.
Several are of the opinion that this is just reinventing the wheel, as other than trying to take advantage of the current crypto-mania, Kodak would simply be creating yet another social media, where you can buy and sell photographs.
Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke, however, thinks otherwise. He had this to say: “For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem.”
KodakCoin would be issued as a security token in compliance with SEC guidelines. Investors from UK, US, Canada and other countries would be able to participate in the initial coin offering (ICO).
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