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>Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and

>Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform. With KODAKCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform. There is no use case that KODAKCoin meets that other cyrptos don't, except that it's owned in house by Kodak. I really hate this trend of companies trying to create their own nonsense currency and then justifying it with "blockchain is great!". If blockchain was the reason you could just transact in almost any currency that isn't bitcoin (because fees). There's no new technology here, it's just Kodak trying to ride the free money wave of cryptocurrency speculation. Pulling rights fees automatically could be accomplished via smart contracts, and without the mess of 'debt' being involved.

abritinthebay 9y ago
This was always going to be the end result of blockchain and cryptocurrency. It was one of the original criticisms of the tech - that "every company would make it's own coin". Smart Contracts are never going to be as popular because they are neither very smart or the same as regular contracts - and have more overhead and larger vunerability anyhow.
- jey 9y ago
  And then they'll all fail, and people will again realize that simply appending ".com" or "blockchain" isn't actually a miraculous panacea. Meanwhile, legitimate uses of ".com" and "blockchain" will still continue to develop and grow.
  - lomnakkus 9y ago
    Yeah, it's not called the Hype Cycle for nothing[1]. Not sure about the latter part of your post -- I'm sure there are legitimate uses of blockchain tech, but on the other hand I'm sure I've seen any yet, personally. EDIT: [1] Actually, it's pretty weird that this is even a thing given how interested we (as effectors of "tech") SHOULD be (but aren't) in how all of this has gone before. Granted, blockchains are a relatively recent invention, but just because it's technically doesn't mean that it's actually meaningfully different in effect/politics/etc.
    - lomnakkus 9y ago
      Eh, bad typo there, it was supposed to be...: I'm not sure I've seen any yet [etc.] (I'm sure most a'y'all got ma drift, but ya know. 'plogies, m'am)
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    Sure! I happen to quite like blockchain tech and I think it will end up being very interesting and useful. However I don't think cryptocurrency (at least how it's pitched now) is where it will end up being useful. Bitcoin/etc hype is basically the same as the early 90s hype over the internet - broadly accurate about the possibilities but utterly misapplied and misdirected.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  That's exactly why what we need is a common framework such that when every person and company does make their own cryptocurrency, the exchanges can handle settlement and barter-matchmaking in a seamless and mostly automated fashion. So if Kodak has a standing offer to register stock photos and do rights clearance and licensing forever for X Eastmans, and I have a standing offer to exchange software development services for Y Blammos per day, the computing power that people offer in exchange for Hypotheticoins cranks through an arcane and unspecified algorithm, then spits out a result where I get what I want, and I have to do some work for an ex-dental-hygienist that once worked for my dentist. And I also get some change for it. For doing the job, I not only get the Kodak service, but I also get a medium 2-topping pizza from the nearest Domino's, an oil change and brake inspection from my regular mechanic, and 3 weeks of lawn-mowing from a kid on the next block. To my knowledge, Bitcoin can't do this, and an assortment of fragmented unitasker coins can't do it without an array of attached service businesses like Coinbase and BitPay. I'm really keen on a future where cryptocurrency enables a gift-barter economy, where you can make wishes, and grant other people's wishes. The more you grant to others, the more you get in return. I think that's a kind of thing that most people can really support, but it hasn't happened already, because the administrative overhead is a nightmare. With human matchmakers in the loop, you can only reasonably handle big wishes, and so you can't pay people back for helping to grant them. And so the recipients are kids with terminal cancer or rescued animals or something, so the givers get paid with warm fuzzies, or a kind of pay-it-forward IOU that might possibly go all the way around the world and come back. With an automated and distributed system cranking away on it, you can get that jar of homemade pickles for calling up a complete stranger to wish them happy birthday, or get a free beer for reciting one line at the right time in someone's bizarre public performance art. Or maybe you can finally get that pothole filled in front of your house, and all you have to do is reduce 300 MB of traffic survey data to determine the 85th percentile of traffic speeds. You can't stop everyone from making their own coins. Might as well try to make them all work together.
  - Paraesthetic 9y ago
    One world Currency would be ideal, just waiting for someone to come out with it.
- petre 9y ago
  > every company would make it's own coin The harder part, as with regular currencies is convincing people to use it. At least with regular currencies usage is enforced by the state, which guarantees a number of users. Even if confidence in that currency has collapsed, you still have to pay your taxes using it.
legohead 9y ago
Piggybacking off popular cryptocurrencies has its own risks[1]. [1] https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions
- akerro 9y ago
  Show me the same graph from ETH and XRP please. Bitcoin is outdated, Bitcoin is to us what ARPANET is to the Internet. Welcome to the future.
  - legohead 9y ago
    ETH: https://etherscan.io/chart/pendingtx https://etherscan.io/chart/pendingtx XRP: can't find, maybe you can provide it for us?
    - earenndil 9y ago
      XRP == Ripple.
- runeks 9y ago
  That’s not a risk, that’s a remaining unsolved problem for blockchains in general (the balance between decentralization and throughput). Solving the blockchain scalability issue by creating more blockchains makes no sense since limited supply is the very feature that makes blockchain unique. Solving the double spend problem is synonymous with limiting supply (double spending is fine if you’re not trying to limit the supply of something).
mywittyname 9y ago
> it's just Kodak trying to ride the free money wave of cryptocurrency speculation. Our company made a massive push last year for developers to be "using blockchain technology, now." No real direction as to what exactly needs to be solved with it, just that we need to be seen using it. This was before several months before the whole Long Island Blockchain fiasco. Apparently, last year, "block chain experts" were meeting with CEOs of major companies and explaining to them that the blockchain is going to change the world and they need to start using the tech, lest they be forgotten. Low-and-behold, six months later, there's a massive influx of companies announcing blockchain technologies (that don't make any sense). Makes me wish I asked who these "experts" were when I was told about it.
- Clubber 9y ago
  Guys billing $500 an hour to tell people what they want to hear.
  - rublev 9y ago
    How do I become this guy? I get paid $80 an hour for a much harder job.
    - GFischer 9y ago
      Heh, I want to know how to get paid $80/hour :) , grass is always greener right?
      - pizza 9y ago
        The two of you could always partner up to split that one job, and both still get an at-least $170/hr raise :P
  - ABCLAW 9y ago
    Guys billing $500 an hour to a third party to provide a CYA paper trail that shields the executive from criticism should everything blow up spectacularly.
jasonmaydie 9y ago
isn't this the main problem with digital currencies? it's easy to make one
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
TheCapn 9y ago
But for a company like Kodak to be beholden to a 3rd party development team is operational risk. Taking the proven technology and forking it under your centralized control seems like a smart move in my opinion. They're not trying to cash out on a digital currency, they're trying to leverage the smart contract tech that's shown to work.
- weberc2 9y ago
  Probably less of a risk than doing it in-house under management whose knowledge of blockchain comes exclusively from consultants whose interests are not aligned with Kodak's.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> it's just Kodak trying to ride the free money wave of cryptocurrency speculation Can we blame them? Their stock is up 125% today [1]. 44 million shares traded on the NYSE on 43 million of these shares outstanding (Kodak has a weird cap structure). Literally every owner of Kodak Common New had the opportunity to cash out, simply on the coattails of management penning a press release. (Including management!) [1] https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AKODK&ei=2yJVWuiBAoOdmAH9pbWYCg https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AKODK&ei=2yJVWuiB...
- bonzini 9y ago
  Management cannot until the information has been absorbed by the public, which is usually considered to be 2-3 working days.
  - philipov 9y ago
    Unless you're Intel.
    - Paraesthetic 9y ago
      As long as you sell months before disclosure you're alright.
  - hasa 9y ago
    There are of course frontmen or front companies doing the job
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  Yes, because the corresponding pop will dry up a lot of capital that could've otherwise been put to productive use. Bullshit is shameful.
  - bomb199 9y ago
    What productive use? It would just go to another bet to try and make money. The stock market is not about giving companies capital anymore, it's about concentrating funds to the back accounts of the right people.
ABCLAW 9y ago
I can't wait to be in court with someone arguing that KODAKCoin is evidence of their ownership of their work, or to fight a malicious registration on the KODAKCoin platform by someone who registers public domain and non-owned works maliciously. Explaining this nonsense to a judge is going to be the highlight of my year.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
  If the photo was already on the internet in a server, there are already records (like the Internet Archive) to verify that it had to have been created prior. The blockchain only adds an additional proof, but can't revert some past history that some other entity can verify actually happened.
- brown9-2 9y ago
  Seems kind of silly to think that judges don’t wade into the technical and complex details of lawsuits everyday. What do you think adjudicating a dispute involves?

abritinthebay 9y ago

This was always going to be the end result of blockchain and cryptocurrency. It was one of the original criticisms of the tech - that "every company would make it's own coin". Smart Contracts are never going to be as popular because they are neither very smart or the same as regular contracts - and have more overhead and larger vunerability anyhow.

jey 9y ago
And then they'll all fail, and people will again realize that simply appending ".com" or "blockchain" isn't actually a miraculous panacea. Meanwhile, legitimate uses of ".com" and "blockchain" will still continue to develop and grow.
- lomnakkus 9y ago
  Yeah, it's not called the Hype Cycle for nothing[1]. Not sure about the latter part of your post -- I'm sure there are legitimate uses of blockchain tech, but on the other hand I'm sure I've seen any yet, personally. EDIT: [1] Actually, it's pretty weird that this is even a thing given how interested we (as effectors of "tech") SHOULD be (but aren't) in how all of this has gone before. Granted, blockchains are a relatively recent invention, but just because it's technically doesn't mean that it's actually meaningfully different in effect/politics/etc.
  - lomnakkus 9y ago
    Eh, bad typo there, it was supposed to be...: I'm not sure I've seen any yet [etc.] (I'm sure most a'y'all got ma drift, but ya know. 'plogies, m'am)
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  Sure! I happen to quite like blockchain tech and I think it will end up being very interesting and useful. However I don't think cryptocurrency (at least how it's pitched now) is where it will end up being useful. Bitcoin/etc hype is basically the same as the early 90s hype over the internet - broadly accurate about the possibilities but utterly misapplied and misdirected.
logfromblammo 9y ago
That's exactly why what we need is a common framework such that when every person and company does make their own cryptocurrency, the exchanges can handle settlement and barter-matchmaking in a seamless and mostly automated fashion. So if Kodak has a standing offer to register stock photos and do rights clearance and licensing forever for X Eastmans, and I have a standing offer to exchange software development services for Y Blammos per day, the computing power that people offer in exchange for Hypotheticoins cranks through an arcane and unspecified algorithm, then spits out a result where I get what I want, and I have to do some work for an ex-dental-hygienist that once worked for my dentist. And I also get some change for it. For doing the job, I not only get the Kodak service, but I also get a medium 2-topping pizza from the nearest Domino's, an oil change and brake inspection from my regular mechanic, and 3 weeks of lawn-mowing from a kid on the next block. To my knowledge, Bitcoin can't do this, and an assortment of fragmented unitasker coins can't do it without an array of attached service businesses like Coinbase and BitPay. I'm really keen on a future where cryptocurrency enables a gift-barter economy, where you can make wishes, and grant other people's wishes. The more you grant to others, the more you get in return. I think that's a kind of thing that most people can really support, but it hasn't happened already, because the administrative overhead is a nightmare. With human matchmakers in the loop, you can only reasonably handle big wishes, and so you can't pay people back for helping to grant them. And so the recipients are kids with terminal cancer or rescued animals or something, so the givers get paid with warm fuzzies, or a kind of pay-it-forward IOU that might possibly go all the way around the world and come back. With an automated and distributed system cranking away on it, you can get that jar of homemade pickles for calling up a complete stranger to wish them happy birthday, or get a free beer for reciting one line at the right time in someone's bizarre public performance art. Or maybe you can finally get that pothole filled in front of your house, and all you have to do is reduce 300 MB of traffic survey data to determine the 85th percentile of traffic speeds. You can't stop everyone from making their own coins. Might as well try to make them all work together.
- Paraesthetic 9y ago
  One world Currency would be ideal, just waiting for someone to come out with it.
petre 9y ago
> every company would make it's own coin The harder part, as with regular currencies is convincing people to use it. At least with regular currencies usage is enforced by the state, which guarantees a number of users. Even if confidence in that currency has collapsed, you still have to pay your taxes using it.

legohead 9y ago

Piggybacking off popular cryptocurrencies has its own risks[1]. [1] https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions

akerro 9y ago
Show me the same graph from ETH and XRP please. Bitcoin is outdated, Bitcoin is to us what ARPANET is to the Internet. Welcome to the future.
- legohead 9y ago
  ETH: https://etherscan.io/chart/pendingtx https://etherscan.io/chart/pendingtx XRP: can't find, maybe you can provide it for us?
  - earenndil 9y ago
    XRP == Ripple.
runeks 9y ago
That’s not a risk, that’s a remaining unsolved problem for blockchains in general (the balance between decentralization and throughput). Solving the blockchain scalability issue by creating more blockchains makes no sense since limited supply is the very feature that makes blockchain unique. Solving the double spend problem is synonymous with limiting supply (double spending is fine if you’re not trying to limit the supply of something).

mywittyname 9y ago

> it's just Kodak trying to ride the free money wave of cryptocurrency speculation. Our company made a massive push last year for developers to be "using blockchain technology, now." No real direction as to what exactly needs to be solved with it, just that we need to be seen using it. This was before several months before the whole Long Island Blockchain fiasco. Apparently, last year, "block chain experts" were meeting with CEOs of major companies and explaining to them that the blockchain is going to change the world and they need to start using the tech, lest they be forgotten. Low-and-behold, six months later, there's a massive influx of companies announcing blockchain technologies (that don't make any sense). Makes me wish I asked who these "experts" were when I was told about it.

Clubber 9y ago
Guys billing $500 an hour to tell people what they want to hear.
- rublev 9y ago
  How do I become this guy? I get paid $80 an hour for a much harder job.
  - GFischer 9y ago
    Heh, I want to know how to get paid $80/hour :) , grass is always greener right?
    - pizza 9y ago
      The two of you could always partner up to split that one job, and both still get an at-least $170/hr raise :P
- ABCLAW 9y ago
  Guys billing $500 an hour to a third party to provide a CYA paper trail that shields the executive from criticism should everything blow up spectacularly.

jasonmaydie 9y ago

isn't this the main problem with digital currencies? it's easy to make one

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

TheCapn 9y ago

But for a company like Kodak to be beholden to a 3rd party development team is operational risk. Taking the proven technology and forking it under your centralized control seems like a smart move in my opinion. They're not trying to cash out on a digital currency, they're trying to leverage the smart contract tech that's shown to work.

weberc2 9y ago
Probably less of a risk than doing it in-house under management whose knowledge of blockchain comes exclusively from consultants whose interests are not aligned with Kodak's.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> it's just Kodak trying to ride the free money wave of cryptocurrency speculation Can we blame them? Their stock is up 125% today [1]. 44 million shares traded on the NYSE on 43 million of these shares outstanding (Kodak has a weird cap structure). Literally every owner of Kodak Common New had the opportunity to cash out, simply on the coattails of management penning a press release. (Including management!) [1] https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AKODK&ei=2yJVWuiBAoOdmAH9pbWYCg https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AKODK&ei=2yJVWuiB...

bonzini 9y ago
Management cannot until the information has been absorbed by the public, which is usually considered to be 2-3 working days.
- philipov 9y ago
  Unless you're Intel.
  - Paraesthetic 9y ago
    As long as you sell months before disclosure you're alright.
- hasa 9y ago
  There are of course frontmen or front companies doing the job
throwawayjava 9y ago
Yes, because the corresponding pop will dry up a lot of capital that could've otherwise been put to productive use. Bullshit is shameful.
- bomb199 9y ago
  What productive use? It would just go to another bet to try and make money. The stock market is not about giving companies capital anymore, it's about concentrating funds to the back accounts of the right people.

ABCLAW 9y ago

I can't wait to be in court with someone arguing that KODAKCoin is evidence of their ownership of their work, or to fight a malicious registration on the KODAKCoin platform by someone who registers public domain and non-owned works maliciously. Explaining this nonsense to a judge is going to be the highlight of my year.

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
If the photo was already on the internet in a server, there are already records (like the Internet Archive) to verify that it had to have been created prior. The blockchain only adds an additional proof, but can't revert some past history that some other entity can verify actually happened.
brown9-2 9y ago
Seems kind of silly to think that judges don’t wade into the technical and complex details of lawsuits everyday. What do you think adjudicating a dispute involves?